Sustainability - December 2023

December 2023 | sustainabilitymag.com

CSOs

SAP

LEADING THE WAY ON ENTERPRISE

AWS Kara Hurst, Vice-President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon

SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

Sophia Mendelsohn & Gunther Rothermel discuss sustainability at SAP DANFOSS

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The Sustainability Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

TOM SWALLOW EDITOR

CHARLIE KING CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER

SCOTT BIRCH

HEAD OF DESIGN

ANDY WOOLLACOTT LEAD DESIGNER

SAM HUBBARD SENIOR DESIGNERS

SAM HUBBARD REBEKAH BIRLESON

FEATURE DESIGNERS

JULIA WAINWRIGHT VICTORIA CASEY EMMA WALLER ADVERT DESIGNERS

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ

PRODUCTION MANAGERS

CALLUM HOOD DANILO CARDOSO ADRIAN SERBAN

JANE ARNETA MARIA GONZALEZ YEVHENIIA SUBBOTINA KENDRA LAU

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

MARKETING MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

ERNEST DE NEVE THOMAS EASTERFORD DREW HARDMAN SALLY MOUSTAFA

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SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER

LAUREN HAYES

PROJECT DIRECTOR

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MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

CHARLIE MCGILL

MANAGING DIRECTOR

LEWIS VAUGHAN CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

WOMEN ARE GOOD AT SUSTAINABILITY Last month we published the first ever Top 100 CSOs list, which was born as a supplement to this magazine.

One thing I certainly noticed in this process was the sheer number of female CSOs, which was great to see and had me thinking about the suitability of women as sustainability leaders – and overall diversity as a means of allowing businesses to evolve.

Sustainability LIVE’s Women in Sustainability panel really shed a light on this and, thanks to the four very passionate speakers, It makes sense.

For that insight, you’ll have to read on, but what I want to highlight here is the impact this could have on wider industry positions as ESG integrates into businesses.

Will the women in business lead sustainable transformation and drive companies to make the necessary changes? I’m excited to see what happens in this space.

SUSTAINABILITY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

TOM SWALLOW

tom.swallow@bizclikmedia.com

© 2023 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CONTENTS UP FRONT 014 THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW

014

Adam Grant, General Manager of Mars Wrigley UK

020 LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT

Kara Hurst, Vice-President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon

024 PEOPLE MOVES

020 024

ESG investing generates a shift among sustainability leaders

026 THE MONTH THAT WAS

An abundance of corporate sustainability insights

026

000 030 8

December 2023

DECEMBER 2023

048

FEATURES

064

030 TOP 10 CSOs

048 SAP

Leading the way on enterprise sustainability management

064 ESG

Sustainable SMEs can leverage tech partnerships for the 3Ps

074 SAP

074

SAP’s Joule taking supply chain AI to the next level

092 DE&I

Sustainability careers breed diversity in business and society

092 sustainabilitymag.com

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Virginie Helias

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DECEMBER 2023

178 100 128

152 100 DANFOSS DRIVES The journey to net zero and energy efficiency

118 NET ZERO

Is carbon offsetting really a sustainable net-zero solution?

128 ETIX EVERYWHERE

152 IRON MOUNTAIN DATA CENTERS The twin infrastructure impacts of generative AI and how to deal with them

164 MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

Edge data centres in Europe – and now Asia

Mastercard Foundation invests in the future of African youth

144 SUPPLY CHAIN

178 SIEMENS ENERGY

Supply risk mitigation must cover impacts

Driving sustainability with digitalisation

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The Portfolio

WORK WITH US

THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW

Growing best-loved confectionery brands sustainably

Adam Grant, General Manager of Mars Wrigley UK, takes us on a journey of sweet sustainability for a leading confectioner of the UK’s favourite brands

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ADAM GRANT TITLE: GENERAL MANAGER COMPANY: MARS WRIGLEY UK INDUSTRY: F OOD AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURING LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Adam Grant has been the General Manager of Mars Wrigley UK since 2021. Previously, he spent 17 years at Danone in roles including Regional GM, Danone Dairy UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland, where he led the team to deliver significant growth in sales and category share.

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December 2023

orking at one of the UK’s most iconic chocolate manufacturers is the best job in the world according to Adam Grant, General Manager of Mars Wrigley UK. Over the past few years, he has had the opportunity to grow some of the UK’s best loved brands, such as Galaxy, EXTRA, Maltesers and Skittles, having previously held the position of Regional Vice President, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland, for food and beverage manufacturer Danone, where he spent nearly 20 years.

But Mars UK goes much further than just the iconic Mars Bar, whether it’s looking after the health of your pet, inspiring moments of everyday happiness through snacks, or supporting family nutrition with delicious balanced meals, with Mars Foods. The brand is part of the furniture in Britain, having been a part of UK households for over 90 years. With that understanding, the company knows that it is setting a standard of sustainability.

Adam Grant

THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW

Q. WHAT DOES SUSTAINABILITY LOOK LIKE AT MARS WRIGLEY UK?

» It is an exciting time to be GM of Mars

Wrigley in the UK and I have made it my responsibility to ensure we think about sustainability in every business decision we make. Through partnerships, science, and immediate action I believe that we can both grow the business and accelerate to net zero.

The UK is leading in its sustainability efforts. In just a few years in the UK we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by sourcing 100% renewable electricity across all our UK manufacturing sites, led on packaging developments, and been working hard on our cocoa supply chain to prevent deforestation.

We know there is a lot more to do and I’m incredibly proud that Mars is taking bold action to reduce GHGs emissions not only across our business but also in our full value chain. I look forward to delivering positive change through ambitious commitments and action in our market.

The next few years will be fundamental in achieving net zero. Every business globally, including us, has a massive responsibility to deliver on our promises and as Mars Wrigley UK GM I am passionate about leading by example through ambitious commitments and action in our market.

Q. WHAT STEPS CAN FOOD COMPANIES LIKE MARS TAKE TO EMBED SUSTAINABILITY INTO THE FOUNDATIONS OF BUSINESS?

» At Mars, we recognise that business is

a powerful driver for good – we’ve always been driven by this ethos, and we think in generations, not quarters, so lasting impact is always a key priority.

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December 2023

“ We know there is no place for exceptions or excuses and that we need to ensure performance is prioritised over promises”

to make genuine impact. Our packaging journey over the past few years is a great example of this. We’ve made significant strides to look at how we use virgin plastics across the UK business including our recent paper packaging pilot for Mars bar in the UK, as well as Mars Petcare’s move to remove 180 tonnes of plastic from cans of Pedigree, Whiskas, Chappie and Kitekat in the UK every year.

It’s not been easy, but one thing we’re big on is transparency – we can all benefit from sharing lessons learned along the journey with each other across the business and industry. Our roadmap clearly and powerfully demonstrates what Mars is doing to help tackle climate change, at scale. In fact, our Mars Net Zero Roadmap serves as an open-source strategy that other companies can use to start making meaningful Net Zero action right now.

What many people don’t know is that we’re also a family-owned business and have been for more than a century. That means we have autonomy over the way we do business, always sticking to our Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom – guiding us to strive for a better world, placing great value on our relationships and responsibilities.

Looking at the road ahead, outlined in our new Net Zero Roadmap, we are committed to real, meaningful progress.

For us, this means having both technical experts who know what works when it comes to sustainability and marketers who bring these ideas to life through our brands. Our Associates range from marine biologists to rice buyers, pet neurosurgeons and packing specialists – we have a huge breadth of expertise

Q. WHAT CHALLENGES DO THEY CURRENTLY FACE?

» Balancing sustainability amongst many

other competing business priorities and resourcing challenges can be difficult. But here’s the deal – businesses must keep sustainability front and centre to compete both for consumers and to attract and keep talent.

We know there is no place for exceptions or excuses and that we need to ensure performance is prioritised over promises. In developing our Net Zero Roadmap we found that our plans and targets were not only possible to deliver, with existing science and technology, but they were entirely affordable too.

There are no shortcuts here. We’re talking about big structural shifts that can take many years to come to fruition. While such challenges may impact the pace of sustainabilitymag.com

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THE SUSTAINABILITY INTERVIEW

progress, we at Mars are committed to scaling up solutions where they exist and to test, learn, partner and advocate where they don’t. In short, we know that we can grow our business and cut our emissions – we’re not just about making money, we’re about making a difference too, and our consumers and Associates want both.

Q. WHAT BENEFITS CAN A SUCCESSFUL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY HAVE FOR BUSINESSES LIKE MARS?

» Protecting our planet tomorrow starts

with how we do business today. This vision is at the heart of our Sustainable in a Generation Plan, working towards a healthy planet, where people and pets thrive, and society is inclusive. Our Net Zero Roadmap isn’t just about doing better; it’s about doing what is necessary.

We’re doing this because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’s 18

December 2023

good for business. Creating mutual benefits for the people in our supply chain and mitigating our impact on the environment are sound business choices.

An example from another of our brands is Galaxy’s commitment to responsibly sourced cocoa and support for people in our supply chains.

Progress will be imperfect, but the roadmap demonstrates that the business case to act now is both achievable and affordable.

Q. HOW MUCH AUTONOMY DO GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS – LIKE MARS UK – HAVE ON THE WIDER STRATEGY AND TARGETS OF GLOBAL BUSINESSES?

» Sustainability touches every part of

the business. Our thinking is global but, we’re realising projects and initiatives at a regional and local level. This is especially true here in the UK where we really kickstarted our sustainability in 2016 with

the Moy Wind Farm where Mars agreed to buy its electricity from Eneco UK’s Moy Wind Farm, a company that generates its power from wind turbines in the Highlands.

Since then and moving forward to this year, Mars has been investing in packaging innovation – from increasing recycled packaging content to exploring innovative alternatives to plastic – such as our in-store Bean Board trial in Tesco stores, to pilot a new material made from cocoa bean shells for promotional displays. Mars UK has also invested in reductions to its carbon footprint through new and improved logistics and fulfilment centres – including the opening of the London Thames Gateway facility, in partnership with DHL, which will reduce Mars UK’s logistics carbon footprint by 7.7% and remove a million miles a year from roads.

We know there is a lot more to do, but we’re committing to taking

“ We know there is a lot more to do, but we’re committing to taking big strides towards our goals” big strides towards our goals and I’m incredibly proud that Mars is taking bold action to reduce GHGs emissions across the business. we’re putting sustainability at our core; improving our environmental footprint, operating and sourcing responsibly and bringing more innovative, sustainable choices to consumers across the country. sustainabilitymag.com

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LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT

Kara Hurst

We honour Kara Hurst, Vice-President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon, for guiding the company towards a more sustainable future

A

WRITTEN BY: AMBER JACKSON

s Vice President and Head of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon, Kara Hurst is a trailblazer in the sustainability sector who is committed to mitigating global climate change.

She leads the company’s sustainability strategy, which includes addressing its ESG issues and the Climate Pledge team.

She also manages sustainability reporting for the company, such as Amazon’s 2022 Sustainability Report.

Part of her current role is leading Amazon’s investment into renewable projects across Europe. Having led the development and global evolution of environmental and social responsibility at Amazon since 2014, Hurst continues her reign of sustainable transformation.

Delivering Amazon’s climate goals – ahead of time Prior to joining Amazon, Hurst was CEO of The Sustainability Consortium, a multi-sector group across academia, the retail industry and the public sector.

The organisation was named one of Scientific American’s ‘Top Ten World Changing Ideas’ in 2012.

Before that, she worked as Vice President of BSR where she built several global industry practices and led the company’s New York and Washington DC offices, as well as the global partnership practice with governments, multi-laterals and foundations.

Hurst also co-founded the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (now the Responsible Business Alliance) and worked in Silicon Valley as Executive Director of OpenVoice, where she built out early teenage channel content for AOL and others.

She also holds a Bachelor’s degree from Barnard College of Columbia University and an MPP from the University of California, Berkeley.

Having worked across both local and federal government, Hurst now places her focus on driving connections between science, consumer products,

KARA HURST TITLE: VICE-PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF WORLDWIDE SUSTAINABILITY COMPANY: AMAZON INDUSTRY: SUSTAINABILITY LOCATION: UNITED STATES With a background in sustainability, global strategy and management, Kara Hartnett Hurst is on a mission to lead the corporate charge towards a sustainable future. She now heads worldwide sustainability at Amazon to continue its goal of becoming the most sustainable company, hoping to make it net zero by 2040.

sustainabilitymag.com

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LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT

Kara Hurst, Vice President, Worldwide Sustainability, Amazon, at US Climate Action Summit WATCH NOW

technology and sustainability. Part of this is leading Amazon’s Climate Pledge team, which was co-founded by Amazon with Global Optimism.

The Climate Pledge is powered by 445 companies in 38 countries around the globe and has a goal of reaching netzero carbon emissions by 2040. Amazon has pledged to do this by investing in renewable energy, scaling solutions and collaborating with partners to broaden its impact.

Partnering science with sustainability Amazon’s 2022 Sustainability Report builds on the company’s sustainability progress over the last decade, particularly since 2019 when 22

December 2023

it co-founded The Climate Pledge and announced its commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the entire business by 2040.

The findings showed a 0.4% decrease over the course of the year in absolute carbon emissions as the company continues to move towards net-zero carbon emissions.

Hurst recognises that more needs to be done in order to combat climate change globally and is continuing work to solidify this mission and make Amazon one of the leading companies in netzero strategy. Whilst it is already on the 2040 pathway, Hurst is also keen to continue driving the company’s circular economy, recycling work, sustainable

“ These projects don’t just help us power our operations, they also provide economic benefits to the communities where they’re located”

transportation and electric vehicles and sustainable products and materials.

At the time of writing this, the company has just announced that it is decarbonising transportation across the entire business by increasing fleet efficiency, expanding the use of lowcarbon fuels, and scaling electric and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Speaking on these changes in her report summary, Hurst said: “In 2022, we had more than 9,000 electric delivery vehicles in our global fleet, and 145 million packages were delivered by EVs in the US and Europe.

“Our goal is to get 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian on the road by 2030. Today, we have more than 5,000 vehicles operating in the U.S. and recently announced the first 300 to hit the road in Germany.”

Hurst also announced on LinkedIn in October 2023 that Amazon has added 39 new renewable energy projects across Europe in 2023 so far, bringing its total to more than 400 across the globe.

“These projects don’t just help us power our operations, they also provide economic benefits to the communities where they’re located. To quantify this impact, our research shows that Amazon’s renewable energy projects in Europe created €2.4bn (US$2.53bn) in economic investment, and more than 3,900 jobs in 2022 alone,” Hurst said.

“We plan to power all of Amazon’s operations with renewable energy by 2025, and we’re getting there in part by continuing to add wind and solar projects around the world.” sustainabilitymag.com

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PEOPLE MOVES

ESG INVESTING GENERATES A SHIFT AMONG SUSTAINABILITY LEADERS Looking back on the year, there have been a number of sustainability leader appointments, of which many will result in ESGdriven investments and commerce

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December 2023

SHERRY MADERA JOB FROM: S VP PUBLIC POLICY AT MASTERCARD JOB TO: C EO OF THE CARBON DISCLOSURE PROJECT (CDP) A former investment banker and diplomat, Madera combines a unique skill set, incorporating business, policy making, and diplomacy, which are all key traits to bring to her latest role.

On the 3rd October 2023, Sherry Madera took on the role as CEO of CDP, which is a driving force in global environmental disclosures. Her leadership at the nonprofit will continue to rise in demand for sustainability insight, of which the world is at a critical point of uncovering its progress towards UN sustainable development goals.

“I am honoured to join such an established organisation as CDP, especially at this moment when we acknowledge the pivotal role data plays in assessing and managing climate actions,” says Madera. “I look forward to collaborating with our talented global team, CDP’s stakeholders worldwide and with our valued partners, to drive more ambitious and urgent climate action and to build on our unique position in the environmental data ecosystem.”

KRISTEN BROWN

DAVID GOATMAN

JOB FROM: D IRECTOR OF FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS UK&I JOB TO: V P OF STRATEGY UK&I

JOB FROM: P ARTNER, HEAD OF ENERGY, SUSTAINABILITY AND NATURAL RESOURCES EMEA

VP of Strategy for the UK and Ireland was earned by Kristen Brown, a role in which she will dedicate her efforts to group operational strategy and ensure the execution of shortterm strategic goals.

The real-estate consultancy based in London, UK, has appointed Goatman to lead the changes happening in the world of property.

JOB TO: G LOBAL HEAD OF ENERGY AND SUSTAINABILITY SERVICES

FRANCESCO STARACE

LORRAINE BECKER

JOB FROM: C EO & GENERAL MANAGER AT ENEL

JOB FROM: I NTERIM HEAD OF ESG AT DIF CAPITAL PARTNERS

JOB TO: C HAIR OF THE SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS INITIATIVE (SBTI)

JOB TO: H EAD OF ESG AT DIF CAPITAL PARTNERS

Having left Enel in May 2023, Starace still retains positions, such as the Chairman of the Board at Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and is a partner at EQT Group.

After leaving her post as a Principal Consultant for Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Becker entered DIF Capital Partners as its Interim Head of ESG in April 2023 before swiftly taking on the permanent role.

DENISE WONG JOB FROM: V ENTURE CAPITAL INVESTOR AT VU VENTURE PARTNERS JOB TO: H EAD OF SUSTAINABLE AND IMPACT BANKING, ASIA PACIFIC AT BARCLAYS Moving to Barclays from her prior position as a Venture Capital Investor, Denise Wong is now the Head of Sustainable and Impact Banking for the bank.

“ Over the coming years, DIF will have an ongoing commitment to being a responsible investor”

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THE MONTH THAT WAS

AN ABUNDANCE OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY INSIGHTS

SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC: SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTING DRIVES SUCCESS Recognised as the most sustainable business in our Top 100 Companies, Schneider Electric is well positioned to share information and insights on business strategies for decarbonisation and longterm compliance with environmental, social and governance (ESG).

More than just an electrical equipment innovator, Schneider has mastered the power of digital to support its customers in energy management and emission reductions, but also automation to achieve the same great results time and time again.

READ NOW

Consultancies like PwC, EY and Bain have provided a number of materials to support companies with their sustainability outlook and strategic action

PWC SURVEYS INVESTORS ON CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING “We are moving from a period of awarenessraising around the importance of climate and technological change to a time where investors are increasingly asking specific and tough questions about how companies are addressing those issues in their strategy.”

READ NOW

ACCENTURE’S SERVICES TO SUPPORT BUSINESS GROWTH SUSTAINABLY The pressures of sustainability can be seen and heard across a number of industries as they emphasise their commitments to economic growth in line with environmental and social causes. With this comes a number of actions, including netzero emissions reduction strategy—comprising measurement.

READ NOW

EY SHARES CONSUMER SUSTAINABILITY AND CLIMATE SENTIMENTS

BAIN: EXECUTIVES HAVEN’T EMBEDDED SUSTAINABILITY EFFECTIVELY

BCG READIES BUSINESSES FOR EU CLIMATE AND ESG REGULATIONS

Research from the management consulting firm shows the trends in consumer behaviour, which could inform the choices of companies in the consumer goods industry.

75% of executives surveyed by Bain & Company say that sustainability has not been implemented effectively across their organisations.

This isn’t to signify the end of the road for businesses.

Insight from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) follows the increased uncertainty around the European Union’s (UN’s) most recent environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulations.

READ NOW

READ NOW

READ NOW

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CSOs Following the Top 100 CSOs, Sustainability Magazine looks back at those leading their businesses towards environmental and social efficacy WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

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December 2023

TOP 10

s sustainabilitymag.com

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TOP 10

10 Jim Andrew Chief Sustainability Officer

PepsiCo Food & Beverage Services Revenue $86bn 315,000 Employees

Leading PepsiCo’s global sustainability strategy, Andrew is focused on the growth and transformation of PepsiCo through pep+, the company’s strategy which includes the integration of sustainability across its brands

“I think that’s one of the real keys to making sustainability work.

You’ve got to embed it in the

and business. He also builds the company’s

business strategy, the business

capabilities and partnerships, designing the

processes and the actions

roadmaps, and executing the programs to transform PepsiCo into the next decade.

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December 2023

everybody takes every day”

TOP 10

9 Bea Perez SVP / Chief Communications, Sustainability and Strategic Partnerships Officer

The Coca-Cola Company Food & Beverage Services Revenue $44.14bn 79,000 Employees

Joining The Coca-Cola Company in 1994, Perez – for the last 30 years – has climbed

“I’m a firm believer in the

through the ranks. As CSO, she is responsible

transformational power

for the company’s global sustainability strategy,

of partnerships. It is

supporting its new growth model. Key focus areas for Perez include water stewardship, sustainable packaging, environment and

part of our DNA that we must work together”

women’s economic empowerment.

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TOP 10

8 Virginie Helias Chief Sustainability Officer

Procter & Gamble Manufacturing Revenue US$82bn 106,000 Employees

Helias has over three decades of experience at Procter & Gamble, and since 2011 she has been honing her focus on sustainability and corporate citizenship. Her mission is to embed sustainability into the innovation, brand building, and everyday business operations, making sustainability a core business strategy and a catalyst for a more resilient organisation.

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December 2023

“I’m honored to receive this recognition, which is a testament to the dedication of everyone at P&G who champions sustainability as a driving force behind our innovation, brand-building, and business operations. Our journey towards sustainability is marked by the unwavering commitment, tenacity, and resilience that characterizes our extraordinary team”

TOP 10

7 Paulette Frank Chief Sustainability Officer

Johnson & Johnson Hospitals & Health Care Revenue US$122.51bn 150,000 Employees

Inspired by the understanding that healthy people need a healthy planet, Frank is passionate about sustainability.

“We are wasting no time making

As CSO of Johnson & Johnson she is

progress because we know there is

responsible for developing and leading

no time to waste – the world needs

global environmental sustainability and human rights strategies to strengthen the business and propel it towards a more

bold climate action to advance both human and planetary health”

sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.

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TOP 10

6 Jon Chorley Chief Sustainability Officer

Oracle IT Service & IT Consulting Revenue US$49.95bn 199,000 Employees

With more than 30 years of experience in the software industry, Chorley joined Oracle in 1997.

In his role as CSO, Chorley drives and coordinates

“The way people think about the environment is quite a bit

all initiatives both internally and externally

different than it was several

that related to environmental sustainability.

years ago. That’s forcing all

Chorley ensure that the company operates an efficient, clean, and circular cloud infrastructure to not only drive business value, but lower the company’s environmental impact as the world shifts towards a zero-carbon future.

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December 2023

businesses to take sustainability concerns out of the closet and bring them into the boardroom”

TOP 10

5 Kathryn Alsegaf Global Chief Sustainability Officer

Deloitte Business Consulting & Services Revenue US$60bn 430,000 Employees

For more than a decade, Alsegaf has been an influential leader in the sustainability field. As CSO at Deloitte, her responsibilities include overseeing and advancing Deloitte’s WorldClimate Strategy, as well as its

“The decisions we make today can impact the quality of life for the generations to come. A better

overall environmental objectives. Alsegaf

future is entirely possible, but it

is also responsible for the company’s

will require a profound and lasting

greenhouse gas inventory, development and tracking of carbon reduction goals.

change in attitudes and behaviors”

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TOP 10

4 Melanie Nakagawa Chief Sustainability Officer

Microsoft Software Development Revenue US$211.91bn 224,000 Employees

Joining Microsoft at the start on 2023 as CSO, Nakagawa has worked in and around sustainability for 20 years. In her role,

“There are just so many incredibly talented people

Nakagawa reports directory to the Corporate

who are dedicating their life

Vice President, partnering with teams across

mission to sustainability.

Microsoft to lead company-wide environmental sustainability work. She will also help the company to accelerate its momentum when it comes to sustainable efforts.

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December 2023

How can one not be optimistic when you see this growing, talented workforce?”

The Portfolio

TOP 10

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December 2023

3

Wayne Balta Chief Sustainabilty Officer

IBM

Responsible for the global environmental affairs, energy efficiency, toxicology and chemical management, and product safety and related hardware compliance functions at IBM, Balta is dedicated to growth that drives innovation and shifts in business and technology. For nearly 40 years, Balta has been an integral leader at IBM, he has served on the company’s Global Enablement Team for Kenya and East Africa and is the company’s Partnership Executive for Carnegie Mellon University (where he received a degree in civil engineering).

IT Services & Consulting Revenue US$60.52bn 310,000 Employees

“There is no question in my mind that sustainability is good for the bottom line.

Someone once said ‘if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.’ That applies to environmental sustainability as well”

sustainabilitymag.com

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TOP 10

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December 2023

2 A pioneer in promoting and ensuring the adoption of sustainable practices at Unilever, Marmot guides the company towards a more eco-friendly future. Being a leading figure at the company, Marmot is known for her energy and drive to make a positive change in the world by fostering transformational change in Unilever’s priority areas of water, sanitation, and hygiene; climate change and ending deforestation; opportunities for women; plastics and the circular economy; impact finance; and health and wellbeing.

Rebecca Marmot Chief Sustainability Officer

Unilever Manufacturing Revenue US$62.07bn 149,000 Employees

“The world faces enormous challenges, from runaway climate change to hunger and dire poverty. Interconnected issues that will not be solved unless we take collective action – across businesses, governments and civil society”

sustainabilitymag.com

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TOP 10

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December 2023

1

Kate Brandt Chief Sustainability Officer

Google

An inspirational leader, Brandt is passionate about both sustainability and DE&I. In her role as CSO for Google, Brandt leads the company’s sustainability efforts across its worldwide operations, products and supply chain to ensure the company is capitalising on opportunities to strategically advance sustainability.

Prior to joining Google, Brandt was the first Federal CSO in the US, and a recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award – the highest award a civilian can receive from the US Navy.

Software Development Revenue £257.63bn 289,000 Employees

“Sustainability has truly been a core value since our founding over 20 years ago. We believe that every business has both the opportunity and the obligation to protect our planet”

sustainabilitymag.com

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LE ADING THE WAY ON ENTERPRISE SUSTAINABILIT Y MANAGEMENT AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS PRODUCED BY: JONATHAN MOORE

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December 2023

SAP

Sophia Mendelsohn & Gunther Rothermel discuss sustainability at SAP, being Co-General Managers and why they are excited to be in sustainability today

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AP was founded in 1972 when computers filled an entire room and were connected to monochrome CRT displays.

This group of early technology pioneers went on to become the global leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. SAP built and installed solutions that help run critical business functions from finance to supply chain to human resources.

Ninety-nine of the 100 largest companies run SAP solutions, also 97 of the greenest companies. The company’s reach into global business is impressive – SAP customers account for US$46tn, or 87% of all global commerce.

SAP’s mission now is to embed sustainability into the core business of its customers. Using its formidable scale and reach, SAP connects sustainability data with other cloud-based corporate data so that companies have a more complete, accurate and actionable understanding of their sustainability performance. By bringing sustainability into finance, procurement and business networks, the aim is to make sustainable business the standard operating procedure.

While SAP has offered sustainability management solutions for many years, only a few years ago did it make the strategic move to develop a portfolio of specialised,

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Gunther Rothermel is Chief Product Officer for SAP Sustainability. He’s been with the company for 25 years leading development teams.

Sophia Mendelsohn is Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer for SAP Sustainability and has focused on advancing sustainable business for 20 years.

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cloud-based software solutions to help customers tackle difficult sustainability challenges at industrial scale. These solutions cover a number of areas, including climate action, circular economy, social sustainability, as well as holistic steering – the evaluation of corporate impacts on society and wider economy – and reporting. Under a co-general management structure, a team was formed within SAP to build and help customers adopt the new solutions.

Together, Rothermel and Mendelsohn are Co-General Managers for Sustainability at SAP. Rothermel spent most of his career in SAP. “I work more on the technology platform side of the house,” he says.

Alongside his personal interest in the topic, Rothermel realised that there was a massive data challenge in corporate sustainability and this is why he began solving problems in this area.

Meanwhile, Mendelsohn cut her sustainability teeth in China. “That’s where I really became committed to the idea of marrying up free-market solutions with sustainable outcomes,” she says. “I’m often called an OG in corporate sustainability. Before, we called it EHS and then CSR, then sustainability and then ESG. Now, we are moving towards business integration.”

A co-general manager structure makes sense for SAP and sustainability solutions, Mendelsohn adds: “I think what Gunther and I combine very well at SAP is my understanding of the market need with his understanding of sustainability data and integrating it with other corporate data.”

This is exactly where SAP combines ambition with reality.

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ESG data management foundation “We cover a broad range of sustainability challenges for our customers,” he says.

“A lot of things are coming fast. It’s an exciting time because there’s a lot of new ways we are applying advanced technology to sustainability management while at the same time there’s a lot of regulatory changes happening.”

One major challenge, however, is to find solutions for the problems at hand, while some of the standards and industry regulations are not there yet, he said.

For Mendelsohn, SAP’s ESG data management strategy and solutions, like the SAP Sustainability Control Tower, is about creating the best data foundation so companies can level up to holistic, enterprise-wide sustainability management.

“One thing Gunther has taught me at SAP is that there is still a huge amount of uncertainty with sustainability data,” sustainabilitymag.com

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GUNTHER ROTHERMEL TITLE: C HIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AND CO-GENERAL MANAGER INDUSTRY: S OFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LOCATION: GERMANY Gunther Rothermel helps businesses on their transformation journey with a new set of sustainability related capabilities offered by SAP. As Chief Product Officer and Co-General Manager for SAP Sustainability, Gunther and his team deliver product innovations on sustainability addressing four dimensions: holistic steering & reporting, climate action, circular economy, and social responsibility. A seasoned leader with a future oriented, strategic mindset, Gunther has an impressive track record in product development and delivering cloud services. Principles like agile development, design-led innovation, DevOps and cloud engineering are essential parts of Gunther’s leadership approach. Gunther was key in defining and delivering SAP’s platform technology and the overall integration and orchestration portfolio of SAP.

“ BECAUSE MORE THAN 80% OF CARBON EMISSIONS ARE SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS LOCKED AWAY IN YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN, YOU FUNDAMENTALLY NEED TO GET ACCESS AND AGGREGATE THIS DATA” GUNTHER ROTHERMEL

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AND CO-GENERAL MANAGER, SAP SUSTAINABILITY

says Mendelsohn. “With so much of the regulation and ambition oriented around reporting and transparency, our challenge is to make reporting easier so they can focus on transitioning their business activities to be more sustainable.”

Data is core to the overall ESG foundation, she adds. The data has to be accessible, accurate and stable to be effectively integrated with other corporate data and used for strategic planning or in-the-moment operational decisions.

“What the sustainability stack at SAP does is go from data aggregation to data analytics,” she says. “The ability to connect the data, see it and use it from sustainabilitymag.com

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“ WE ARE NOT ONLY USING THE STRONG CAPABILITIES THAT WE HAVE IN-HOUSE IN SAP, BUT WE ARE ALSO INCORPORATING AND USING THE VERY SPECIALISED CAPABILITIES FROM DIFFERENT PARTNERS” GUNTHER ROTHERMEL

CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER AND CO-GENERAL MANAGER, SAP SUSTAINABILITY

the boardroom to the shop floor, is what can help people make more informed, more sustainable business decisions.”

Tackling Scope 3 emissions across supply chains When it comes to climate action and accounting for carbon emissions, SAP wants to help companies move past estimates and error-prone spreadsheets to effectively calculate overall corporate carbon footprints, and then move to calculating footprints at the individual product level.

Because SAP helps companies run their global supply chains, SAP is ready to get down to the data details when it comes to Scope 3 accounting. Upstream and downstream carbon emissions transparency, however, remains a challenge for companies

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across industries. One of SAP’s key approaches is to enable companies to share accurate emissions data along the supply chain, instead of everyone making oftenincorrect assumptions and calculations.

Enterprises need an accounting system for their emissions data that is as auditable, transparent and reliable as their financial data. The current accounting system for supply chain emissions is severely flawed as it relies on data that often lacks access, accuracy, granularity and comparability, Rothermel added. SAP’s transactional carbon accounting capabilities focus on recording, reporting and acting on carbon emission data and ultimately syncing the emissions data with financial data leading to a “green ledger”.

“We envision carbon to be accounted for in a green ledger, just like your financials are

maintained in a financial ledger,” he says. “But companies still have a big challenge to deliver data of a quality worthy of a green ledger.

“There are two key parts to SAP’s greenhouse gas protocol coverage across all scopes,” he says. The first is SAP Sustainability Footprint Management which is a solution that increases accessibility by pulling data from many sources, and then uses the data as a basis for footprint calculations.

“Because more than 80% of carbon emissions are Scope 3 emissions locked away in your supply chain, you fundamentally need to get access and aggregate this data,” he adds. “If we don’t, we will continue to work with averages instead of actuals.”

Gathering and calculating emissions data more accurately is one thing, but companies sustainabilitymag.com

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happen in the cloud,” she says. “It’s going to happen with AI with the amount of data we’ll have to synthesise. We’re talking about envisioning a supply chain that shares sustainability related information more openly and fluidly than they share financial information.

“There’s a gap between where the regulations are envisioning what’s possible and where we see technology delivering.”

Moving to a circular economy The co-GMs both made the point that we can only deal with about half of global emissions by moving to renewable energy. We have to tackle the other half by designing out waste, keeping materials in use longer, and adopting regenerative practices across all areas of production.

One hundred billion tonnes of materials are used each year in our current “linear” economy. Just 7.2% is reused or recycled. The SAP team wants to change this and aims to help need to move the data from one supplier to another.

“We want to rely on real data that customers can share,” says Rothermel.

“This is why we cover carbon sharing capabilities in our SAP Sustainability Data Exchange solution, for example, that uses standards and protocols established by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s PACT programme, the Pathfinder framework, and other standards over time.”

Mendelsohn sees the need for companies to move to the cloud to accelerate how they can take advantage of next-generation carbon accounting.

“The reality is that the energy transition and the materials transition are going to 58

December 2023

“ THERE’S A GAP BETWEEN WHERE THE REGULATIONS ARE ENVISIONING WHAT’S POSSIBLE AND WHERE WE SEE TECHNOLOGY DELIVERING” SOPHIA MENDELSOHN

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMERCIAL OFFICER, SAP SUSTAINABILITY

SOPHIA MENDELSOHN TITLE: C HIEF SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMERCIAL OFFICER FOR SAP SUSTAINABILITY INDUSTRY: S OFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LOCATION: UNITED STATES As Chief Sustainability and Commercial Officer and co-GM for SAP Sustainability, Sophia and her team oversee SAP’s corporate sustainability and bring sustainability to market for customers. Sophia’s long-standing area of focus is in guiding organisations on how to balance immediate financial goals with sustainability and ESG governance for long-term business viability. She has deep expertise in sustainability and specialises in executive stakeholder engagement. She designed and taught the first ESG at Harvard Extension School, is a recognised public voice on ESG, and was chosen as one of the top 10 sustainability leaders of the year. Sophia has a master of science in sustainable management from Columbia University.

companies build a more circular economy using the SAP Responsible Design and Production software.

Rothermel built this cloud-based solution based on SAP’s Business Technology Platform, its flexible development and customisation platform. The solution helps companies react to quickly changing plastics taxes, for example, and adapt product packaging specifications to respond to new Extended Producer Responsibility policies.

Ensuring social sustainability SAP’s social sustainability software and ESG packages are an important part of its offering, which SAP has been investing into for years and covers more operational aspects of sustainability.

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“Customers use this for the operational compliance on a plant level for emissions management and waste management related topics, but it also has a strong health and safety component,” explains Rothermel.

“It covers incident management, because SAP operates in many industries that are also very regulated.”

Mendelsohn emphasises that sustainability can’t all be about carbon emissions.

“Fundamentally, we still talk too much about carbon and climate as an environmental problem, as if this is something separate than social. At SAP, we have the ability to measure the social elements. What I want to emphasise is that when we talk about treating carbon

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like money or the importance of accurate carbon data, we see it as a social issue for communities, for our customers and for our own employees.”

“We support other important metrics, such as women in management positions, D&I related components and human rights,” adds Rothermel.

Collaborating for Impact SAP is also supported by a global network of partner companies helping to customise and install SAP solutions. It’s a big ecosystem.

Partners are an intrinsic part of SAPs strategy and how they go to market and build solutions.

“Our partners play several important roles,” says Rothermel. “They help us to

bring the software to our clients. They help us implement the software and of course they also advise our customers on their strategic transformation journey.

“We are not only using the strong capabilities that we have in-house in SAP, but we are also incorporating and using the very specialised capabilities from different partners. They co-innovate with us because we believe nobody can solve these tough issues of sustainability alone.”

SAP will continue on its mission to embed sustainability across the businesses it works with and Rothermel and Mendelsohn will lead the sustainability team together. Over the next year, there’s a lot in store for the company. sustainabilitymag.com

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“ WHAT THE SUSTAINABILITY STACK AT SAP DOES IS GO FROM DATA AGGREGATION TO DATA ANALYTICS. THE ABILITY TO CONNECT THE DATA, SEE IT AND USE IT, FROM THE BOARDROOM TO THE SHOP FLOOR” SOPHIA MENDELSOHN

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY AND COMMERCIAL OFFICER, SAP SUSTAINABILITY

“Big sustainability transformations are really just beginning. It’s what I am here for and why I get up in the morning,” Rothermel added. “I want to help customers solve problems with the help of good software in the sustainability space.”

“It’s a very important year for us at SAP, but also for the whole industry and for sustainability,” says Mendelsohn. “I’m looking forward to 2024 when we deliver new capabilities and help customers really take advantage of technology and data and speed up their transitions. It’s going to be a year of new proof points and ultimately positive impact. That’s what I am looking forward to.”

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SUSTAINABLE SM CAN LEVERAGE T PARTNERSHIPS F THE 3Ps Awareness of sustainability means that SMEs should understand the 3Ps. Microsoft’s Sherif Tawfik explains how digital partnerships enable true action WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW

MEs TECH FOR

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ustainability is often mistaken for environmental, social and governance, which have connotations and relevance, but fail to define what the term really means. People, planet and profit, known as the 3Ps in many circles, are the key components of sustainable action, but as they are referred to as environmental, social and economical factors the confusion arises.

Nevertheless, these are the key areas of focus, and it’s important that businesses endeavour to meet all three for that coveted ‘sustainable’ status. But how much do businesses know about their impact on communities, the planet we live on, and the economic growth as a result of decarbonisation and social prosperity?

While the focus is often on large corporations and their impacts—because they do have the platforms and reach to facilitate them as such—SMEs must also understand how this affects them, especially when collaborating with said companies.

“In the bustling arena of sustainability conversations, the ‘People’ aspect often finds itself in the shadows, not quite catching the limelight like its counterparts ‘Planet’ and ‘Profit,” says Sherif Tawfik, Chief Sustainability Commercial Officer of Central, Southeast Europe, Middles East, and Africa at Microsoft. “The talks about environmental conservation and economic gains are everywhere, while the important discussions about social sustainability – think equity, diversity, and social responsibility – don’t always get to the same stage.”

“This oversight might be because gauging social sustainability isn’t as straightforward as counting carbon emissions or dollars. It’s a bit elusive, dealing with a wide canvas of human experiences and societal nuances. sustainabilitymag.com

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“SUSTAINABILITY IS MORE THAN JUST CUTTING EMISSIONS – IT’S ABOUT CREATING A POSITIVE RIPPLE EFFECT ACROSS THE ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY” SHERIF TAWFIK

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMERCIAL OFFICER, MICROSOFT

Unlike a company’s carbon footprint or bottom line, you can’t easily put a number on concepts like social equity or community well-being.”

Digital transformation aligned with sustainable development Two of the key components that enable companies to fully understand their business are knowledge and technology. With digital evolution well under way, and likely to be a staple in the future, Tawfik suggests

that organisations that fail to digitise will be left behind along with their outdated legacy systems.

“In the modern business landscape, relying on outdated technology is similar to still using fax machines for all communication – it just doesn’t cut it anymore,” says Tawfik. “Technology is foundational, and when it comes to sustainability efforts, digital tools are absolutely crucial. After all, you can’t progress what you can’t measure.” sustainabilitymag.com

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Businesses that already exist in the digital ecosystem need not get complacent that adoption is the solution to ensuring that their teams can instantly gain access to the insights and knowledge that will allow them to track the progress of company’s activities.

“Microsoft, with its roots in the mission of placing a PC on every desk and in every home, has evolved to a powerful commitment of empowering every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. This pledge inherently speaks to inclusion—for all people and organisations, 68

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“ WHEN ORGANISATIONS JOIN FORCES, THEY CAN LEVERAGE EACH OTHER’S STRENGTHS, KNOWLEDGE, AND RESOURCES” SHERIF TAWFIK

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMERCIAL OFFICER, MICROSOFT

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HOW DOES MICROSOFT SUPPORT SMEs WITH THE 3PS?

regardless of their size,” says Tawfik. “It’s about democratising technology access, seen as a critical booster of productivity, and making sure that small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) are central to this transformative journey.”

With technologies in place, onboarding is necessary to allow, hopefully, a diverse workforce to learn the system and the company’s approach to sustainability reporting and analysis. To this point, there are three key ways in which firms can combine technology with their sustainability efforts.

In order to educate companies about the 3Ps, Microsoft shares knowledge and insights that help them understand not only the necessity for action, but the benefits of it. A key part of this work is targeted towards workforce development and ensuring that employees are betterequipped to work in compliance with sustainability. Initiatives across Tawfik’s regions of activity, such as the Central Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa Academy, help organisations understand ESG as they should see it through their business lens.

Furthering this, the company provides SMEs with the necessary digital technologies to respond to the challenging world sustainably. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and tools like its Azure and Azure IoT Hub, assist companies in monitoring ecosystem changes and creating models based on climate and human behaviour.

“Through these avenues, Microsoft ensures that SMEs are not just beneficiaries but also contributors in the journey towards sustainability,” says Tawfik. “Empowering SMEs is aligned with Microsoft’s mission, embodying a dedication to the 3Ps by democratising technology access and knowledge, ultimately fostering a sustainable and inclusive future.”

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The first one is to embrace it. From the perspective of Microsoft, it’s about companies working with providers that align their goals and have the solutions to support.

“Leveraging Microsoft’s Cloud Services, businesses can tap into sustainable practices that lead to a whopping 98% reduction in emissions compared to traditional IT setups.

It’s about ensuring that the tech backbone of a company is geared towards sustainability right from the start,” says Tawfik.

“Next, it’s essential to prioritise measurement using advanced digital tools.

Having accurate, intelligent, and analytic data is the cornerstone of making real progress. Businesses should transition from rudimentary Excel-based reporting to more sophisticated tools that allow for automation and trend identification. This shift ensures that sustainability efforts are not just tracked but are also strategically aligned for impactful decision-making.”

The final point addresses some of the most advanced solutions for visualising a company’s sustainability footprint—some

SHERIF TAWFIK TITLE: C HIEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMERCIAL OFFICER CENTRAL, SOUTHEAST EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, & AFRICA COMPANY: MICROSOFT INDUSTRY: SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LOCATION: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES Sherif is a highly accomplished Senior Tech Sector Executive with an impressive career spanning over 25 years, overseeing diverse geographical regions. Currently serving as

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of them exploratory; showing promise for sustainable improvement nonetheless.

Tawfik believes that innovation is at heart of any progressive sustainability strategy.

“Simulating real-world scenarios through Digital Twins and exploring the Industrial Metaverse, businesses can experiment, innovate, and drive sustainability seamlessly. Microsoft, for instance, provides businesses with the opportunity to mirror and migrate their processes within advanced Digital Twins and Metaverse environments, fostering innovation and sustainability simultaneously.”

Partners are the enablers of the 3Ps “Partnership and collaboration are like the secret sauce in bringing the 3Ps – People, Planet, and Profit – to life. No single organisation can claim to have access to everyone or hold the keys to all methods of sustainability. The beauty of partnership lies in its foundation: it’s about coming together and pooling diverse resources, ideas, and energies.”

the Chief Sustainability Commercial Officer for Microsoft in Central, Southeast Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Sherif leads the region’s commercial and go-tomarket strategy for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. His contributions play a vital role in advancing the company’s mission of “empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”. Leveraging the power of technology, digital transformation, and innovation, Sherif harnesses Microsoft’s resources to drive positive change towards a healthier planet.

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“ EMPOWERING SMES IS ALIGNED WITH MICROSOFT’S MISSION, EMBODYING A DEDICATION TO THE 3PS BY DEMOCRATISING TECHNOLOGY ACCESS AND KNOWLEDGE” SHERIF TAWFIK

CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMERCIAL OFFICER, MICROSOFT

“Just think about it: one of the key elements of the ‘People’ aspect is the celebration of diversity, inclusion, and equality. This spirit of togetherness and embracing different perspectives is exactly what partnership is all about.”

Partnership should be more than just a commercial endeavour. As sustainability takes precedence, businesses at the forefront of the digital era have the ability to show SMEs how to adapt to these changes. This also opens the door to lessons in both directions as, what Tawfik suggests, companies can learn valuable lessons from each others’ strengths.

“Why is teamwork so crucial?,” he asks, answering: “When organisations join forces, they can leverage each other’s strengths, knowledge, and resources. It’s like putting together pieces of a puzzle. One company might have groundbreaking environmental practices, while another may excel in ensuring worker well-being. Together, they can create a complete picture of sustainability, addressing all 3Ps more effectively.” sustainabilitymag.com

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SAP’S JOULE TAKING SUPPLY CHAIN AI TO THE NEXT LEVEL WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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Darcy MacClaren, Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Digital Supply Chain, on why Joule takes AI out of the sandbox and places it at the heart of businesses

n launching Joule – SAP’s naturallanguage, generative AI ‘co-pilot’ – SAP CEO Christian Klein spells out how it has the power to redefine both the way businesses and people work. “Joule will know what you mean, not just what you say,” Klein tells the world.

Joule will be embedded throughout SAP’s cloud enterprise portfolio, and is aimed at the estimated 300 million enterprise users around the world who work with SAP cloud solutions. It is built to deliver proactive and contextualised insight from across the breadth and depth of SAP solutions and third-party sources – and one area in particular is set to reap huge benefits from it: supply chain.

Darcy MacClaren, Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Digital Supply Chain, says: “AI has the potential to revolutionise supply chain management because it’s going to enable better decision-making, improved efficiency, reduced costs and meaningful sustainability initiatives. As AI becomes more accessible, we will see increased adoption and integration of it across supply chain operations. It’s a game changer.”

Based on an understanding of a customer’s processes, Joule is able to provide the customer not only with intelligent insight, but can also make recommendations designed to deliver outcomes faster.

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“This capability is now available across the SAP portfolio, and it’s going to be incredibly important to supply chains,” she says. “You can interrogate Joule. You can ask questions such as, ‘Were there any issues in my last supply planning run?’ Joule will then let you know what’s going on in your planning cycles, and what you need to do about it. It will make suggestions by comparing different planning runs.”

SAP ‘will become the largest AI enterprise bar none’ Because AI is embedded across its solutions, MacClaren explains that Joule “is set to make SAP ‘the largest AI enterprise out there, bar none’.”

“Supply chain is the key area where folks are using AI for,” she adds. “Joule can contextualise data from multiple systems.

This results in insights that help people get work done faster and drive better business outcomes in a secure, compliant way.”

“Think of well-known consumer apps that have AI embedded, such as Siri, Uber and Microsoft Office,” says MacClaren. “We have that now in SAP. Our mission is to enable and accelerate the adoption of AI to create business value. It’s infused in the business process, and that’s what SAP’s business AI is.

It’s an integrated feature.

“We are also exposing business AI to extend services through our business technology platform.”

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MacClaren is in no doubt that Joule – and SAP’s wider business AI offerings – are milestone events for supply chain, a discipline in which she has been involved for more than 25 years.

She joined SAP 12 years ago. Unlike many in the supply chain, MacClaren has an economics rather than engineering background, and also gained an MBA early in her career when she was with Hewlett-Packard, where she worked in the manufacturing technology space.

At SAP, MacClaren is responsible for the go-to market for SAP’s digital supply chain solution set. “It’s what we call ‘design to operate’,” she says. “It’s basically everything from how a company designs its products to how it plans, schedules, manufactures, delivers and operates.”

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Making supply chains resilient ‘is our goal’ She and her team are responsible for working with SAP customers to help transform their supply chains to be resilient, risk proof, and agile.

“We’re the point of contact between SAP and our audience,” she says, adding: “As Chief Revenue Officer, I am on the customer side of things. But there is also a solution and marketing aspect to what we do, and we’re also involved with engineering product development. We work together to determine the go-to market for the supply chain at SAP globally.”

Throughout her career, MacClaren has developed deep experience in building and scaling niche supply chain companies.

She started out with a planning and scheduling company, whose solutions

“ SAP’S ALWAYS BEEN POSITIONED BETWEEN TECH AND BUSINESS, AND WE’RE NOW APPLYING THAT TO REALLY SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY OF AI” DARCY MACCLAREN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, SAP DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

DARCY MACCLAREN TITLE: CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER INDUSTRY: S OFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LOCATION: UNITED STATES Darcy MacClaren is a strategic global leader who has spent 30 years growing, differentiating, and improving businesses through technology transformation with a focus on supply chain. She has held various leadership roles at SAP over the last ten years, most recently serving as the Senior Vice President of Digital Supply Chain and Industry 4.0 for SAP North America. Today, she serves as Chief Revenue Officer of SAP Digital Supply Chain, overseeing the global supply chain business.

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“ A BUSINESS MUST CONSTANTLY BE WORKING ON ITS DATA. IT’S A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION” DARCY MACCLAREN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, SAP DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

now reside at Oracle, and has also worked across most of the ‘design-to-operate’ pillars, including planning, transportation, and design.

MacClaren finds the potential of Joule “exciting and inspiring,” and feels the same way about supply chain in general.

“From the beginning, I just loved supply chain,” she says. “I loved the mathematical complexity of it, and I loved how it could be optimised and the strategic decisions that are made. It made me realise how powerful and important the supply chain is in any business.”

At SAP, MacClaren is on a self-declared mission to work with customers to transform their supply chain – something she sees as a global imperative. “Supply chain always was very important,” she says, “but the pandemic brought it to the forefront of people’s thinking, both at boardroom and government level.”

Continuing with this theme, MacClaren points out that the release of Joule comes at a time when the stock of supply chain executives has never been higher – their influence at board level never stronger.

“CEOs are now being recruited from the supply chain side of the business because supply chain execs understand the entire sustainabilitymag.com

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organisation and what runs it,” she says.

“A study we did recently with Oxford Economics shows how important it is in today’s world for businesses to make supply chain the heart of any business strategy, because of the seemingly never-ending run of disruptions. It must never be an afterthought.”

With Joule now turbo-charging SAP’s solutions, senior supply chain executives are set to bring a greater degree of insight and control to the boardroom.

SAP solutions have AI and ML at their core MacClaren reminds us that SAP’s solutions have for some time been built on AI and have offered machine learning capabilities.

“If you look at our warehouse management solutions, we use AI for intelligence slotting,” she says. “This optimises warehouses through stock replenishment, based on product characteristics, product demand and sales forecasts.”

She adds: “Then if you look at generative AI in transportation, it examines goods received and delivery notes, and optimises which loads you should unload first. So it’s quite powerful.

“Demand planning customers, meanwhile, are using market data promotion, weather calendars, and tens of thousands of data points with machine learning to create forecasts by country, which makes it far more efficient.” sustainabilitymag.com

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Of course, SAP does not work in a vacuum, but within a collaborative ecosystem far greater than the sum of its parts. One key SAP collaborative partner is Deloitte, who recently expanded its deployment of SAP Business Technology Platform, an open cloud solution with data management, analytics, AI, IoT, blockchain and application development services to help connect companies.

Deloitte has also expanded its SAP RISE deployment so companies can access

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innovation across their supply chain.

SAP RISE is a complete offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure and services that helps businesses migrate SAP ERP. Deloitte now has RISE Premium Supplier designation, which increases the breadth of the SAP cloud services that the company is able to bring to its clients.

“We have a deep commitment to working closely with SAP to empower

supply chain transformation in pursuit of business agility and resilience,” a Deloitte spokesperson says. “We look forward to continuing to support our joint clients through the waves of industry change, with SAP as a prized collaborator.”

Pointing out that Joule takes the power of SAP’s solutions to another level. MacClaren Echoing Klein that Joule knows what you mean, not just what you say, she explains that Joule

means AI “is no longer just a sandbox pilot but the beating heart of your business.”

SAP partner – IT implementation specialist, LeverX – also lauds the power of Joule, with company Chairman and Co-founder Victor Lozinski saying that Joule “provides new-found capabilities that enable SAP customers to improve the decisionmaking process, accelerate problem resolution, and determine the sustainability quotient of their delivery operations.”

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`He adds: “The world of logistics faces several hurdles throughout the delivery process, impacting efficiency, transparency, and overall costs.

“The growing and dynamic power of AI can address these challenges and bring to life groundbreaking solutions that revolutionise the entire supply chain landscape. By leveraging SAP Digital Supply Chain, companies can orchestrate and monitor all delivery cycles in real-time.”

Another SAP partner to welcome the introduction of Joule is Camelot ITLab, a leading SAP consultancy for digital supply chain management.

A Camelot ITLab spokesperson said: “The impact of AI in supply chain is not limited to a specific function, but offers transformative benefits across the entire design-to-operate process.

“With its generative AI application Joule, SAP will dramatically change how businesses run, and it marks a new era of transformation and innovation. Joule will be a game changer for SAP’s Digital Supply Chain customers.”

But of course, many businesses currently have no access to this game-changing AI power, because they are behind the

“ JOULE MEANS AI IS NO LONGER JUST A SANDBOX PILOT BUT THE BEATING HEART OF YOUR BUSINESS” DARCY MACCLAREN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, SAP DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

technological curve – marooned in a world of siloed data and offline spreadsheet analysis.

For MacClaren and her team, guiding such business through their transformation journeys is central to what they do.

“Like many areas of business, supply chain practitioners are very comfortable with Excel, which they use for offline data manipulation,” says MacClaren. “This is why SAP uses Excel-like interfaces, the big difference of course being that our solutions are dealing with live data accessible in the cloud when the business user needs to make game-time decisions.”

She adds that as well as weaning supply chain folk off Excel, SAP solutions help them move away from departmental silos, to be more collaborative – both within their own organisation and externally.

“If you are a demand planner, you need to be communicating with supply planning,” says MacClaren. “Design needs to be sustainabilitymag.com

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communicating with manufacturing, which needs to communicate with logistics – and they all need to be communicating with one another as part of a digital thread.”

Disparate technologies can affect data quality As for the many businesses that have already embarked on transformation, they too face barriers to progress.

“A business must constantly be working on its data,” she says. “It’s a journey, not a destination, and the more a company uses disparate technologies the more important it is that it keeps that data clean.”

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“ AI HAS THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONISE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT” DARCY MACCLAREN

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER, SAP DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

SAP

One of the most important things SAP helps its clients with, says MacClaren, is clean data.

“Look, data is never going to be 100% clean but you have to start the journey of cleaning it as soon as possible, and of course we have a lot of machine learning tools to help here.”

Whatever stage a business is at on its transformation journey, MacClaren says her team’s aim is the same: “We want to delight the end consumer, and do it in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

“We have a strong sense of ownership and responsibility in helping companies

do that, and we take it very seriously.

That’s what I really enjoy about it. The impact supply chain has across society, globally.

“When you add our existing capability to natural-language AI it is going to be truly transformational.

“SAP has always been positioned between technology and business, and we’re now applying that to our long standing customers to really seize the opportunity of AI.

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DE&I

SUSTAINABILITY CAREERS BREED DIVERSITY IN BUSINESS AND SOCIETY Following on from Sustainability LIVE london, we’re tapping into key insights from the Women in Sustainability panel about leaderships and gender roles WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW

W

hat defines the perfect sustainability leader? Perhaps it’s someone with a significant level of empathy towards the climate scenario and the social implications of business as opposed to a die-hard activist.

Over the years there have been many types of scrutiny among very passionate people in the world as to whether sustainability is truly achievable, but more pressingly whether authorities and businesses are doing enough to eliminate the possibility of a 1.5-degree temperature rise.

Such a challenge hinges on great leadership, but not in the historical sense.

While a militant approach to major challenges might have worked for countries in the past, now is the time for more empathetic leaders to take charge, making necessary changes environmentally and socially.

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be perceived as a means of bringing female leaders to the fore, but also recognising the potential of a diverse leadership in altering the course of an unsustainable business.

However, such a conclusion also throws out questions around work-life balance, particularly among parents in executive roles where preconceived ideas about the family dynamic are under question.

A non-traditional approach to diversity in the workplace When was it deemed necessary for men to work a living and their wives to remain at home with their children? This is the conundrum that has plagued society for a while and led to an overwhelming majority of male representation in leadership. With that said, the women of industry are certain that women have a role to play in developing sustainability in the time frame presented by the Paris Climate Agreement – along with many ethical practices required to shape a future of global equity.

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“Diversity leads to greater innovation.

It’s always combing back to that stat that we all know – we’ve all seen the report – but ultimately because we’re dealing with some huge social issues and our societies are made up of all different types of people,” says Katie Mills, Head of Zeigo Power at Schneider Electric, and a keen advocate of workplace diversity.

“Ultimately, we’re failing right now. We haven’t reached our targets when it comes

KATIE MILLS TITLE: H EAD OF ZEIGO POWER COMPANY: SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC INDUSTRY: ENERGY LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Mills is the Head of Zeigo Power for the Schneider Electric Sustainability Business and her role focuses on democratising the Green power purchase agreement (PPA) market. Prior to this, she co-founded CarbonFix, a business manufacturing semiconductors for the renewable energy sector.

to climate change. We have to look at ways to innovate in totally new ways. If we don’t do that, then ultimately we will all fail.”

The ‘ways’ that Mills refers to are the efforts to promote diversity and understand that employment is not about who fits the mould of society, but who has the right passion, mindset and expertise to develop business’ sustainability strategies, and women in particular are seen as more empathetic in many cases.

According to Michelle Davies, Global Head of Sustainability at EY Law, a sustainability leader should not be confined to a single role. The position that person plays within an organisation is to embed sustainability in conversations among all internal stakeholders.

“ ULTIMATELY, WE’RE FAILING RIGHT NOW. WE HAVEN’T REACHED OUR TARGETS WHEN IT COMES TO CLIMATE CHANGE” KATIE MILLS

HEAD OF ZEIGO POWER, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC sustainabilitymag.com

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MICHELLE DAVIES TITLE: G LOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY COMPANY: EY (LAW) INDUSTRY: CONSULTING LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Michelle Davies is a partner at EY and the Global Head of Sustainability within its legal division. She advises clients across the energy sector on transitioning to a cleaner future, alongside further aspects of sustainability among corporates.

“If it is only compliance and they’re not responsible for infusing sustainability throughout the entire organisation, which means having a greater impact on strategy, a greater impact on value driven strategies, if it’s just compliance, they’re not going to get a significant budget,” says Davies.

The key point here being ‘budget’ whereby the consensus is that women are unlikely to be awarded significant funding for major or high-risk business activities over their male counterparts.

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DE&I

“ I THINK IT IS INCUMBENT UPON US AS LEADERS WITHIN OUR OWN ORGANISATIONS TO HELP WOMEN SEE THAT IT IS A BALANCE” MICHELLE DAVIES

GLOBAL HEAD OF SUSTAINABILITY, EY (LAW)

“It can’t be that you have a sustainability lady walking around asking people, ‘could you please maybe incorporate sustainability criteria in procurement or we need to invest this in renewable energy,” says Angela Hultberg, Global Sustainability Director at Kearney.

“It doesn’t work. They need to have a mandate also to influence the business strategy, not a sustainability strategy, but a sustainable business strategy.”

This point highlights one of the concerns among women, and in fact all advocates of women in sustainability roles, businesses can be very subjective in the way they treat male leaders versus women. This isn’t just bad for business from a diversity or image perspective, but will likely hinder the sustainabilitymag.com

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Use more image captions as often as possible

DE&I

performance of sustainability strategy.

This is somewhat alarming as there are only two ways this scenario can go.

Either women are less respected in the workplace due to the lack of progress – a result of smaller budgets – or they are led down treacherous paths in order to show they are worthy of the support they need. However, listening to some of influential women working in sustainability, their drive to take action is what allows them to power through adversity.

Addressing the expectations of females in society As the carriers of the next generation, historically women have found it difficult to pursue careers of influence, which has also presented challenges for a diverse group of individuals – minority, sexuality and other factors of discrimination creeping into the workplace.

The ladies of the industry, as seen in the Women in Sustainability panel as Sustainability LIVE London, are keen to address the idea of not role-reversal, but role equality. Not only does maternity pose risks to their careers, but it can also put many female leaders on the back foot if their work and personal environments show little incentive to develop their careers – this goes for any industry.

Listening to the women on stage, it becomes apparent that work-life balance isn’t just about managing tasks, but also creating a new understanding of parental roles.

“I think it is incumbent upon us as leaders within our own organisations to help women see that it is a balance. If they want their careers to progress, there are certain things that they will need to do,” says Davies.

Joanna Bonnett, Sustainability Committee Member at PageGroup, then divulges that

JOANNA BONNETT TITLE: S USTAINABILITY COMMITTEE MEMBER COMPANY: PAGEGROUP INDUSTRY: RECRUITMENT LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Joanna Bonnett is recognised as the Outstanding Corporate Treasury D&I Leader of 2019, championing diversity and inclusion. She demonstrates key skills in process improvements, business partnering, and team-building. Joanna also focuses on creating ESG value and has recently taken on roles as President and Chair.

her family dynamic is very untraditional, therefore proving that roles can shift.

“I don’t know my children’s shoe size.

I learned one of them because one of my daughters has the same shoe size as me and she broke one of my heels. So I learned it in an indirect way,” Bonnet says.

“I don’t know my youngest children’s shoe sizes, I never have. That’s not my role within the family. But it is also about making sure that others that are coming up understand that, ‘well, that’s my life. This is what I’ve done’. Maybe that‘s the same for them, maybe it’s not.” sustainabilitymag.com

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DANFOSS DRIVES

DANFOSS DRIVES:

THE JOURNEY TO NET ZERO AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS PRODUCED BY: BILLY EVANS

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DANFOSS DRIVES

Danfoss Drives’ Chief Technology Officer Janne Kuivalainen explores the company’s net zero goals, energy efficiency and decarbonising industries

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D

anfoss Drives is a member of Danfoss Group, a Danish family-owned company, with 42,000 employees, sales in more than 100 countries and factories in more than 20. Danfoss Group is a powerhouse in energy efficiency and electrification, with sustainability at the very centre of the company.

“We are present all around the globe, but we are well-known to few,” explains Chief Technology Officer, Janne Kuivalainen.

“Our ambition is to become our customer’s

preferred choice partner in decarbonisation and we want to create long-term value for our stakeholders, customers, employees, shareholders and partners as the global leader in energy efficiency.”

Kuivalainen began working in the hydroelectric power plant business with ABB, where he learned about the merits of dynamic optimisation of energy production and that high reliability and availability are key drivers for success.

“Energy production optimisation started to raise its head in the 1990s, specifically for

those companies that owned both power plants and factories consuming the electric energy. They started to look at the dynamic optimisation of electricity production and consumption. This is a reality today with distributed energy production.”

Kuivalainen also explored the early days of the industrial ethernet, before joining Vacon Plc in 2005, which he found to be an exciting journey, with the growth of versatile and dedicated solutions. Kuivalainen was the Global Head of Research and Development, when Vacon was acquired by Danfoss. sustainabilitymag.com

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DANFOSS DRIVES

JANNE KUIVALAINEN TITLE: CTO, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY COMPANY: DANFOSS LOCATION: FINLAND Janne Kuivalainen is CTO of Danfoss Drives business, a global leader in AC/DC and DC/DC power conversion, as well as variable speed control for electric motors.

He is a strong advocate of search solutions by offering dynamic and impressive products as innovation platforms for customers. Before his current position, he served as Head of Product Management & Development.

Earlier in his career, he has headed technology with ABB Marine & Ports and R&D with Vacon Plc next to being in power generation sales with ABB. He is passionate about learning, lean, equality and sustainability.

Now, the biggest challenge in Kuivalainen’s role is ensuring an effective and efficient working environment, from the CEO’s office to the factory floor.

“We are very aware that we have had great success in working effectively and efficiently across our teams, and with our people, to help all of us understand the business better every day. I want to emphasise that next to the leaders, we need top-notch key-knowledge experts who are able to then pick up the right priorities, organise efficiently and be inspirational and motivational to their surroundings.”

So far, Kuivalainen’s proudest achievement has been scaling and organising electrification businesses.

“We have a fast-emerging business in electrification,” he explains. “I set up a dedicated team with a startup mentality in 2019, to make room for specific exploration. The green transition has been gathering momentum in recent years, and following the ambidexterity principles for businesses, our team was able to become a business unit in the beginning of 2023.”

Net zero pathways and software engineering create energy efficiency Danfoss Group has one of the world’s strongest portfolio components for decarbonising the three most emissionintensive sectors: industry, transport and buildings.

Danfoss Group committed to reducing its emissions to 46.2% of the absolute scope of Scope One by 2030, 2019 being the base year. The company has also committed to reducing absolute Scope Three emissions by 15% in the same timeframe.

“We have decided that, to reduce our Scope One and Two to zero by 2030, we must use energy-efficient measures, reuse excess heat from the process and source renewable energy.”

As a last resort, the company will offset its emissions.

Danfoss Group has a three-step approach: Reuse, Reduce and Recirculate, which Kuivalainen views as a method of medicine.

The company is introducing sustainabilitymag.com

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By Scott Parent, VP & Field CTO, Energy, Aerospace, and Industrial, Ansys

World-class companies use Ansys

Achieving sustainability goals that are crucial to the long-term health of this planet involves consuming fewer of our current resources so more will be available to future generations. Simulation enables companies to save resources, energy, and emissions before products are ever built, and build more energy-efficient products and processes. Digital engineering is key to meeting these goals. It encompasses the design, simulation, optimization, and operation of systems and processes over their life cycles. Two major concepts of digital engineering are sustainability by design and digital twins. Simulation is essential to both concepts.

Sustainability by Design Incorporating sustainability into the design process from its earliest phases is important because more than 80% of a product’s cost, material requirements, and ecological impact are determined during the development and design cycle.

Simulation is crucial to sustainability by design. Using Ansys Granta MI materials database software can help engineers reduce the carbon footprint of a product by finding the best material for the application based on its physical properties and recyclability. Ansys Mechanical can help optimize both the volume and the topology of a component to use as little of the material as possible.

Digital Twins By implementing Ansys Twin Builder, you can improve top-line revenue, manage bottom-line costs, and both gain and retain a competitive advantage. This enables organizations to track the efficiency of the process and monitor any wear and tear. Using software like Ansys Twin Builder, engineers can run simulations on the digital twin to determine any interventions necessary to increase the efficiency or extend the lifetime of the physical mechanism. In many instances, a longer lifetime can mean better resource utilization.

Digital engineering, with simulation at its core, is key in helping to ensure sustainability in product design and operation.

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DANFOSS DRIVES

WATCH NOW

the Danfoss circularity framework (Rethink Reduce Recirculate) as an integral part of its new product development.

By 2030, Danfoss’ ambition is to apply it to all product development.

According to Kim Fausing, Danfoss President and CEO of Danfoss Group, “A third of the reduction needed in energy-related CO2 emissions this decade according to the IEA Net Zero by 2050 scenario must come from improvements in energy efficiency. The good news is that the solutions are there to improve energy efficiency in all sectors. We don’t need to wait. We need action because the greenest energy is the energy we don’t use.”

It is not about how much new green energy can be produced, but how the company can use the energy it has in a much more efficient way. Danfoss Drives is a part

of one very public reference, which is its Project Zero – a public-private partnership in the south of Denmark.

“Since 2007, Project Zero has been able to cut 50% of emissions in the city of Sonderborg. That’s a reduction from 700 tonnes to 339 tonnes of CO2, from 2007 to 2020.”

Software engineering in the age of digitalisation, cybersecurity and IoT Software engineering is not what it used to be. Digitalisation comes with industrial internet connectivity, cybersecurity and data privacy, which is also an important topic in the business environment. Kuivalainen is tasked with working out how to improve and manage this in a sustainable way.

“We have applied DevOps to the embedded systems. The IT industry has sustainabilitymag.com

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Hardware-in-the-Loop Based Digital Twins for Motor Drives

*An example motor drive schematic.

Drive your competitiveness with Hardware-in-the-Loop based models:

Empowering Danfoss MyDrive® HIL Digital Twin users by:

▪

Streamline embedded software testing and lifecycle maintenance for motor drives.

▪

Reducing digital controller testing and integration time from days to hours.

▪

Enable continuous testing and agile DevOps processes.

▪

De-risking motor drive integration and interoperability challenges.

▪

Integrate component design and testing with system integration and interoperability testing.

▪

Streamlining product lifecycle maintenance with virtualized simulation.

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Automated testing of new software updates and upgrades.

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Supercharge product lifecycle with portable HIL based digital twins.

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DANFOSS DRIVES

“ To reduce our emisssions we must use energy efficient measures, reuse excess heat and source renewable energy” JANNE KUIVALAINEN

CTO, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, DANFOSS

been using DevOps in development and integrated operations for quite a while.”

The company has now applied that to the embedded software, which requires hardware-software integration, so that Danfoss Drives can carry out testing seamlessly.

Danfoss Drives has been using solutions offered by its partner, Typhoon HIL, in the hardware-in-the loop (HIL) testing.

Continuous integration and delivery requires investments in testing.

“We applied robotic process automation for testing and lifecycle requirements, for example, due to cyber security, which meant that we needed to create an architecture that has these elements built in, so that it’s easy to maintain.”

Kuivalainen knows that Danfoss Drives can increase the performance on a continuous basis for years to come.

“If I look back to the product itself, we have decided on more extensive use of sustainabilitymag.com

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“ It has been great to work directly with customers and look at different optimised systems there” JANNE KUIVALAINEN

CTO, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, DANFOSS

modelling and simulation. This depends very much on the different physics like thermal, vibration, and EMC simulations.”

Danfoss Drives can generate the software itself for the product, but also the simulation models needed for digital twins, at the same time, from the same source code.

“We envisioned the benefits to ourselves regarding simulation and modelling-based engineering. It has been great to see how we can use it with our customers now.

“Requirements by both customers and regulators will change regarding embedded software. Cybersecurity and data management requirements and regulation will also continue to develop.”

Kuivalainen anticipates that updates will become more common over the lifecycle of a product and they need to be controlled, safe and secure.

“I see that the best practices of it, for example, the DevOps type of operating model is coming into the development of embedded systems as well. It’s a reality for us today.”

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Electrification in manufacturing, sustainability and energy Danfoss Drives electrification solutions can be used across the manufacturing, sustainability and energy sectors. The company has firm ESG targets, ranging from implementing Net Zero to a radical reduction of greenhouse gases.

“We found out there are tools and very much our own products, for this, readily available, which are financially profitable.

Financing of companies is becoming increasingly dependent on how well they do on their ESG journey.”

In manufacturing industries, Danfoss Drives brings the solutions in electrification to the site level, enabling tangible savings in decentralised conveyor systems,

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providing drive solutions for local battery-energy storage systems and advanced drive arrangements.

Danfoss Drives and Ansys collaboration empowers digital transformation Danfoss Drives’ collaboration with Ansys started over a decade ago. As the leading provider of multiphysics simulation software, Ansys has the engineering expertise and comprehensive solutions needed to help innovators push boundaries by using the predictive power of simulation.

“What we value with Ansys is their responsiveness in tool development,” said Kuivalainen. “Optimisation requires high fidelity modelling and simulation.”

Throughout Danfoss Drives’ digitalisation journey, Kuivalainen noticed a barrier to entry for new users of the high-end simulation tools, which could be difficult to understand. This caused a bottleneck for product development.

But with Ansys simulation solutions, such as Ansys Discovery, users can quickly understand how to use the tools; achieve fast, high-fidelity results; and explore multiphysics and multiple physics scenarios.

“With Ansys, we can democratise the simulation, making it more available, so that customers get the right support to get started.”

With Ansys Discovery, Ansys Mechanical, Ansys Fluent, Ansys Icepack and Ansys SIwave, Danfoss Drives can combine fast, accurate physics simulations that are easy to use, meaning that this digitalisation is democratised. For example, Ansys Discovery features interactive modelling and multiple simulation capabilities, which enable users to answer critical design questions early 114

December 2023

in the design process. This saves time and effort on prototyping as users can explore hundreds of design concepts virtually in the time it would take to build and test just one physical prototype.

Danfoss Drives is also co-innovating with customers with help of simulation and modelling.

“We started to pivot systems in our own application development centres with a customer facing platform. We have physical locations, where we can go to innovate and develop solutions with our customers.”

“ We can help our customers run

earlier full scale virtual testing and performance assessments before they have any physical hardware realised for their product” JANNE KUIVALAINEN

CTO, HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY, DANFOSS

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DANFOSS DRIVES

Danfoss Drives has made a commitment to reduce its emissions,

46.2%

of absolute scope of Scope One, Two GHG emissions by 2030, 2019 being the base year Danfoss Drives has committed to reducing absolute Scope Three emissions by

15%

Danfoss Drives provided hardware in the loop solutions, which Kuivalainen has found rewarding.

“It has been great to work directly with the customers and look at different optimised systems there. We can see how greatly we can help our customers to speed up productive development and run earlier full-scale virtual testing and performance assessments before they have any physical hardware realised for their product.”

Simulation and digital engineering help to transform business at Danfoss Drives, as the company can start work much earlier with its customers looking to develop their next generation of products or systems.

Simulation and modelling systems support software solutions like Ansys Twin Builder which helps the customers to integrate, no matter what tools they are using.

“Simulation modelling helps customers to build better solutions.”

Danfoss Drives makes this easy for its customers, co-developing tools with customers, reaching out and piloting with the customers to understand their needs 116

December 2023

and being responsive to change. The simulation and modelling products Danfoss Drives offers to its customers is based on the customers’ needs.

For the next year at Danfoss Drives, Kuivalainen will continue to be more effective in bringing the message to the market of energy savings and opportunities available through the Drives solutions.

“The journey continues, while we look at how we can use the same technologies internally, to drive better quality and productivity,” said Kuivalainen.

IS CARBON OFFSE REALLY A SUSTAIN NET - ZERO SOLUT

ETTING NABLE TION?

NET ZERO

Carbon offsetting allows companies to meet sustainability and carbon neutrality targets, but will it ever really be part of a successful net-zero strategy?

WRITTEN BY: CHARLIE STEER-STEPHENSON

C

arbon offsetting continues to stir debate in the world of sustainability.

The process involves investing in environmental schemes that set out to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions elsewhere in the world, therefore allowing a company to compensate for its own release of carbon into the atmosphere. Recently, carbon offsetting has come under scrutiny due to the controversial nature of this ‘counterbalancing’ premise; we are increasingly being urged to consider whether it’s actually just another form of greenwashing.

The practice of carbon offsetting involves companies purchasing ‘carbon credits’ from project developers like Green Mountain Energy, which are then used to fund different carbon offsetting projects. one credit = the equivalent of one tonne of carbon dioxide.

There are three main categories of offsetting projects: • Carbon removal projects, aiming to remove emissions already in the atmosphere (e.g. afforestation or direct air carbon capture).

• Avoidance projects which aim to avoid the release of emissions (e.g. nature-based conservation schemes to prevent forest destruction).

• Reduction projects which aim to reduce the amount of emissions released (e.g. circular waste management programmes). sustainabilitymag.com

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NET ZERO

“ CONSUMERS WANT MORE CLARITY, BETTER EXPLANATIONS, CLEARER CLAIMS AND MORE EVIDENCE” JOHN NEWTON DIRECTOR, CARBON TRUST

JOHN NEWTON TITLE: D IRECTOR COMPANY: CARBON TRUST INDUSTRY: ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM John Newton, an expert at the Carbon Trust, leads the Carbon Label Delivery Programme. With 20 years of business strategy experience, mainly in ICT, he helps organisations implement sustainability agendas. An alumnus of the University of Cape Town, he emphasises the importance of transparently communicating climate impacts through the Carbon Label.

With over 25,000 registered carbon projects available, companies that are unable to cut out all emissions can still strive to meet their goal of carbon neutrality.

However, the contribution of carbon credits is minor compared to the globalscale of change needed to reduce carbon emissions. As a result, the practice has been criticised as a greenwashing technique that allows companies to pay-off their actions and continue releasing harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Let’s take a look at some top companies whose carbon offsetting practices can give us more insight into the realities of its impact.

Offsetting schemes and the drive for net-zero According to a report by Ecosystem Marketplace, companies who purchase carbon credits are more likely to make an effort to reduce their emissions than businesses not taking part in the practice of offsetting. The report concluded that buyers of carbon credits were 1.8 times more likely to be pursuing a goal of ‘decarbonisation’, and three times more likely to include Scope 3 emissions in their climate targets. It seems that the act of investing in sustainability projects beyond a company’s borders is a great motivator for addressing climate change concerns head on.

“When implemented effectively, highquality carbon credits can add value to an organisation’s climate and sustainability strategy and provide quantifiable evidence of their commitment to supporting the transition to a low carbon future and a just transition,” says James Ramsay, Director of Sustainability Solutions at ENGIE Impact.

One large corporation renowned for its carbon offsetting contributions is Google’s parent company, Alphabet. In 2020 the sustainabilitymag.com

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BUILDING TRUST IN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS The Carbon Trust stands as a respected institution, serving as a reliable compass for attaining net-zero carbon emissions.

It extends its assistance to businesses, governments, and organisations, aiding them in the establishment and achievement of their carbon reduction objectives.

Originating with a distinct mission to propel decarbonization, it was inaugurated under the auspices of the United Kingdom government. This entity bestows valuable knowledge and proficiency to facilitate the comprehension and execution of net zero strategies.

Prioritising sustainability and environmental stewardship, the Carbon Trust plays a pivotal role in confronting the challenges of climate change by aiding diverse stakeholders in diminishing their carbon footprint and transitioning towards more sustainable methodologies.

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company claimed to be the first large corporation to achieve a lifetime net-zero carbon footprint, thanks to the purchasing of high-quality carbon offsets that allowed Alphabet to eliminate Google’s entire carbon legacy (even prior to emissions before becoming carbon neutral in 2007). Now, Alphabet is planning to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy in all data centres and campuses across the world by 2030.

However, in 2022 Alphabet came under scrutiny for the vagueness of its annual environmental report, which ambiguously stated: “We plan to invest in nature-based and technology-based solutions to neutralise our remaining emissions.” In response, capital management group Green Century Funds

NET ZERO

proposed that Alphabet should revisit its carbon offsets disclosure policy in order to give investors clearer insight into the company’s environmental strategies.

“Green Century, and I expect many, many investors, value insight into how Alphabet is managing its climate risk. I believe embracing transparency will only help it select offsets wisely and avoid the greenwashing label,” said Green Century Funds President, Leslie Samuelrich.

Green Century Funds Shareholder Advocate, Andrea Ranger, added: “Becoming a leader in carbon offsets seems like a natural step forward [for Alphabet]. I think our proposal was a wake up call for Alphabet.

Investors like us are analysing corporate

climate commitments very closely, and we want to see that claims of emissions reductions using offsets are actually true.”

Another prominent carbon offsetting leader is JetBlue. In 2020 the company became the US’ first major airline company to achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral on all domestic flights. Today, the company website offers customers the opportunity to purchase their own carbon credits and thereby ‘cancel the emissions from your flight’. Most importantly, the page has access to further information about ‘where offsets go’ and ‘is offsetting enough?’.

However, in December 2022 JetBlue stated that it would no longer use carbon offsetting for domestic flights, and would instead focus sustainabilitymag.com

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“ WHEN IMPLEMENTED EFFECTIVELY, HIGHQUALITY CARBON CREDITS CAN ADD VALUE TO AN ORGANISATION’S CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY” JAMES RAMSAY

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY SOLUTIONS, ENGIE IMPACT

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on funding industry-wide environmental projects such as the development of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Although JetBlue claims to “still strongly believe there is a role for high-quality carbon offsetting solutions”, it has decided to “reallocate its offsetting spending into operational investments that align with its sciencebased target”: finding a sustainable solution to the reduction of air travel emissions.

Carbon offsetting – sustainable or greenwashing?

In September 2023 one of the leading environmental certification schemes, Carbon Trust, stopped awarding companies a ‘carbon neutral’ label if that status was based on the practice of offsetting.

NET ZERO

Google Sustainability Our most ambitious decade yet WATCH NOW

“Consumers want more clarity, better explanations, clearer claims and more evidence. We have looked at best practices around the world to help our customers make sure they are ready for future regulations. That’s the driver behind dropping the carbon neutral labelling,” says John Newton, Carbon Trust Director, in discussion with the Guardian.

In the same month, the Guardian released an investigation undertaken alongside transnational corporate watchdog Corporate Accountability. They found that 78% of the top 50 emission offset projects were categorised as ‘likely junk’. Since then, multiple reporters on climate change have spoken out about the controversial or even ‘useless’ nature of carbon credit projects.

Climate journalism specialist Carbon Brief recently condemned the harmful social effects of carbon offsetting, referring to cases where Indigenous peoples in the Republic of the Congo and the Brazilian, Colombian and Peruvian Amazon have been forcibly removed from their homelands due to forestation projects. They suggest that the distance between companies and the projects they are funding allows for a dangerous sense of detachment from the reality of carbon offsetting practices.

Consequently, huge companies like Shell, Nestlé and Gucci have pulled out of investments into offsetting projects. When criticised for ‘watering down’ their climate ambitions, these major firms simply pointed to Carbon Trust’s statement that carbon credits are not actually an effective way to reduce global heating.

Newton adds: “Generally, companies are quite cautious and nervous about the impacts of offsets. But they were certainly sustainabilitymag.com

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“ INVESTORS LIKE US ARE ANALYSING CORPORATE CLIMATE COMMITMENTS VERY CLOSELY, AND WE WANT TO SEE THAT CLAIMS OF EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS USING OFFSETS ARE ACTUALLY TRUE” ANDREA RANGER

SHAREHOLDER ADVOCATE, GREEN CENTURY FUNDS

bought with good intentions. The people we’re working with definitely didn’t go out there thinking these are controversial. I think there was a lot of confidence in the fact that we’re doing the right thing because they come from credible organisations.”

Although carbon offsetting seems like a good idea at first glance, it’s vital that companies undertake in-depth research into the on-site realities of the projects their carbon credits are paying for. Unless it’s evident that these investments are having a positive impact on the environment and surrounding societies, then corporations large and small should consider whether they’re using the practice of carbon offsetting as a force for good, or as an excuse to wipe their carbon-producing conscience clean.

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EDGE DATA CENT EUROPE – AND N WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

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Group CEO Louis Blanchot shares how edge data centre pioneer and leader Etix Everywhere is taking its successful formula from France to Southeast Asia

A

rtificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and augmented reality are just three of the technological advancements that are gaining headlines globally.

While consumers get excited about how these may change their lives, and business leaders wonder how to leverage the opportunities they offer, there is one essential element necessary for success – edge data centres.

While edge data centres may not enjoy the hype of generative AI, they are a vital piece of the infrastructure required to make these technologies tick, due to low latency, increased security, greater bandwidth, and more sustainable operation.

Etix Everywhere is a leader and pioneer in edge data centres in Europe – and is now expanding that successful formula into Asia.

Formed in 2012, Etix Everywhere now operates 15 data centres, and has grown quickly in the last three years. The number of data centres has tripled in that time, while turnover has grown eight-fold.

Etix Everywhere is committed to providing colocation solutions that are both sovereign and environmentally friendly, all within 200km of its partners’ headquarters. This USP has really helped to drive the business.

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LOUIS BLANCHOT TITLE: GROUP CEO COMPANY: ETIX EVERYWHERE Armed with a civil engineering degree from a top-tier French institution, Louis Blanchot has helmed Etix Everywhere since inception, and played a pivotal role in laying the firm’s foundation. With a track record of successful partnerships over a decade and eight years spent overseeing European operations, Blanchot embodies the essence of leadership.

He spearheaded a strategic turnaround during Etix’s acquisition three years ago. In addition to being a shareholder of the Company, Blanchot shoulders responsibility for the company’s vision, strategy, and overall direction.

“We only focus on the edge market, which for us means bringing the service to the customer and not the customer to the service,” says Etix Everywhere Group CEO Louis Blanchot.

“Our core mission is really to develop a platform of data centres to really bring the infrastructure close to the data end user.”

So, what makes Etix Everywhere different from other edge data centre operators?

Blanchot points to the main USP and reason why customers move to Etix is its scalable edge network with its strong IT marketplace. On top of the colocation factor, Etix is able to deliver interconnection to a long list of IT Partners that can bring added services to its customers to support them in their digital transformation.

“Edge data centres provide customers with access to a lot of solutions to develop their hybrid cloud infrastructure, but also what we see is that there are more and

Etix Everywhere Group CEO Louis Blanchot

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“ What we like in the Southeast Asia market is that we can use the same recipe that we used in Europe – developed and duplicated quickly” LOUIS BLANCHOT GROUP CEO, ETIX EVERYWHERE

more services that require low latency – for example, autonomous vehicle, IoT, streaming, gaming, all these new trends,” says Blanchot.

“There is a growing demand for low latency and also the question of traffic congestion that you can have on connectivity. So, when all the telco companies want to bring a service to their customer, if they had to send data from Lille to Paris to come back to Lille, or basically to send the data to be computed, like in all 134

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those tier one locations, it creates virtual traffic congestion. When the data can be computed straight away, locally, it will save a lot of bandwidth.”

Over the past two years, Etix Everywhere has refocused its efforts on its core expertise – offering a multi-site, sovereign, and decarbonised colocation solution.

The acquisition of CIV has doubled the company’s capacity in the Hauts-de-France and in 2024, Etix will inaugurate Lille #4 – a new data centre just 500 metres from Etix

ETIX EVERYWHERE

Louis Blanchot on edge DCs WATCH NOW

Lille #2, thereby creating a 2.5 MW IT campus with the best connectivity in the region.

Blanchot also points to the recent acquisition of Zcolo France, which has broadened the firm’s horizons – enabling the offer of colocation solutions in three new regions and, as a result, strengthening territorial coverage.

“This acquisition represents a key milestone in cementing our undisputed leadership in the French regional market and accelerates our development in Europe –

with colocation capacity now reaching 17.3MW,” he says.

But the company’s ambitious expansion strategy does not stop here, with a “vision to establish a leading edge data centre platform in Europe and Southeast-Asia, and guarantee our clients highly scalable and connected facilities close to the data end user.”

Data sovereignty is also a key consideration and a hot topic of conversation when it comes to security, and Etix is committed to providing customers with colocation solutions within 200km of its partners’ headquarters.

With data invariably crossing borders with hyperscalers, protecting data sovereignty is a challenge, and that’s why more businesses are taking greater control of their data and keeping it within domestic borders, or even closer to home via edge data centres. sustainabilitymag.com

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Sovereignty is a cornerstone principle for Etix. Domiciled in France with a majority of its capital held by French stakeholders, Etix operates under the jurisdiction of French law for the provision of all its services.

It’s a commitment to sovereignty that not only underscores the company’s dedication to maintaining the highest standards of ethical conduct and legal compliance, but also ensures accountability and compliance within the French regulatory landscape.

“In this way, Etix demonstrates an allegiance to home turf while contributing to the growing French business ecosystem,” says Blanchot.

Along with a commitment to sovereignty, what makes Etix particularly appealing is its offering of a modular solution, a feature it has provided since its inception in 2012. Back in 2012, it was innovative, but now many operators are trying to use modular architecture.

“It’s funny. It’s what we created,” declares Blanchot. “It was our innovative design when we created Etix, and the design that we have sold to all our customers ever since – because the benefits are obvious.

“Firstly, you only invest in what you need, and you align your CAPEX with your sales ramp-up.

“The other main benefit is that we know that the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is really related to IT usage. So, when you achieve around 50% usage and exceed that, the PUE is better. That’s why having a modular data centre improves the IT load and helps you achieve a good PUE.” PUE is essential for data centres as they try to become more sustainable, and that is a core focus for Etix Everywhere.

As well as aiming for PUE 1.3 for all of their

“ Having the support from a big partner like Schneider Electric is huge.

That’s why we only work with such a world-class supplier” LOUIS BLANCHOT GROUP CEO, ETIX EVERYWHERE

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“ Power Usage Effectiveness is essential for data centres as they try to become more sustainable, and that is a core focus for Etix Everywhere” LOUIS BLANCHOT GROUP CEO, ETIX EVERYWHERE

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data centres, the Nantes-headquartered company also strives to use no water for cooling (WUE <0.01 L/kWh), employ low-carbon electricity, recycle residual heat, repurpose existing buildings, and add solar panels.

It’s a bold ambition, and one that was cemented when Etix joined the Climate Neutral Data Center Pact in 2021 with the goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

So how will it achieve those goals?

“We have three ways, the first being to work on the energy efficiency of the data centre and improve the PUE,” says Blanchot.

“Renewing the technical equipment can really improve performance.

“Then you need to work on how you ‘feed’ your data centre with green energy, and how

to recycle the energy that you are producing.

Ultimately, the idea is to switch from being an energy consumer to an energy producer, to create a virtuous circle.”

Evidence of how Etix is looking to expand its footprint in a sustainable manner comes with its first edge data centre in Thailand’s capital Bangkok.

Etix has chosen to focus its development on the capitals of emerging countries with what it considers exponential growth potential. These include Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, and Manila.

The Bangkok site is strategically located in an industrial zone that offers a stable and reliable power source, and also has good road access and telecommunications infrastructure.

DECADE OF DATA CENTRES “When we started in 2012, we were talking about kilowatts or megawatts,” says Group CEO Louis Blanchot. “Now it’s not rare to speak in gigawatts. So, the size of the project is totally different now.

“This new hyperscale market demands finding a huge plot of land with a lot of possibility to scale and also – a lot of power.

“It’s totally different to our edge DC market, really a medium-sized data centre close to the city with a big and deep IT ecosystem and customer portfolio.”

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Escaping Datacenter Obsolescence: Embrace the Future!

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How to achieve cost-efficient data centers A more digital world At Schneider Electric, we believe a more electric and digital world is key to addressing the climate and energy crises.

Together with our customers, we will build the New Electric World everywhere: in our homes, buildings, industries, infrastructure, grids… and of course also data centers!

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We focus on the huge potential of two major pillars: Digitalization and Electrification. Or in other words: Smart & Green. Ultimately, we build the technology around digitalization and electrification that guides our customers towards efficiency and sustainability.

Our collaboration with Etix Everywhere, leader and pioneer in edge data centers, is a prime example of how we work. They are committed to providing colocation solutions that are both sovereign and environmentally friendly, and as a world-class supplier we are in the best position to support them with smart and innovative solutions.

Strategy, product and software Because to meet the needs of the new digital world, we must transform how we deploy and manage IT. Schneider Electric is leading digital transformation

through innovation – with data centers that are sustainable, efficient, adaptive, and resilient in the cloud and at the edge.

Schneider Electric not only has the products to enable the best sustainability in data centers, but also has all the software to digitize the entire lifecycle and the knowledge to act as a strategic partner for part or all of the sustainability process. The result? data centers that are faster, more accurate, more cost-efficient, and more sustainable.

Change the world For us, sustainability is not a buzzword, it is ingrained in our DNA. We have fully integrated sustainability into our strategy over the past 10-15 years, with concrete and ambitious short-term and long-term targets. Only recently we were included on the Fortune 2023 “Change the World” list – a ranking of the top companies in the world making positive social or environmental impact through activities integral to their core business strategy and operations.

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“ We only focus on the edge market, which for us means bringing the service to the customer and not the customer to the service” LOUIS BLANCHOT GROUP CEO, ETIX EVERYWHERE

The modular infrastructure provides flexibility when it comes to scalability, meaning Etix can meet the future growth needs of operations at the same site.

“What we like in the Southeast Asia market is that we can use the same recipe that we used in Europe – developed and duplicated quickly,” says Blanchot.

“That’s why we started with Bangkok. The government is really supporting the digital economy, the country is stable, there is a high number of ‘eyeballs’, not to mention a high number of telcos.”

Instrumental in this expansion into Asia is trusted partner Schneider Electric – the energy consultancy regularly voted the world’s most sustainable company.

Blanchot points to several factors that Etix Everywhere had to tackle, from culture to climate, and how Schneider Electric’s expertise helped them to navigate these challenges.

“Having the support from a big partner like Schneider Electric is huge,” says Blanchot. “That’s why we only work with such a world-class supplier. They have been brilliant for us, and have been able 142

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to deliver the same level of quality in a new country.

“Working with Schneider, they helped provide a turnkey solution, so we can just push the button and know exactly the price, the timing, and the level of quality.

“It’s just a copy and paste of how we worked with Schneider Electric in Europe, and being able to rely on them has been a big comfort and given me the confidence that we can deliver for our customers.”

Looking ahead to the opportunities on the near horizon, from artificial

ETIX EVERYWHERE

intelligence to autonomous driving, those are going to require eye-watering amounts of data, which has to be good news for data centre operators?

Blanchot agrees, but reckons it is a little bit of a ‘chicken-and-egg’ situation – the technology cannot really take off until the capacity is there to enable it.

“We discuss this a lot with our customers, and urge them to think about the world tomorrow,” he says. “I can tell you that all the main telcos understood it well and see these trends coming.

“When we started Etix in 2012 and began investing in edge, I think it was a little early, but now the market is ready. There are more and more investors trying to develop huge platforms to invest in edge, because this is the future.”

If this is indeed the future, you can bet that Etix Everywhere will be there, leading from the front when it comes to edge data centres.

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SUPPLY RISK MITIGATION MUST COVER IMPACTS Leveraging data and analysis, companies can spread or share the risk, but what happens to the climate when risks are managed between businesses?

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igital technology is key to realising the potential of the supply chain, particularly in the sustainability sense. Industry 4.0 is driving major shifts across industries and the emergence of more and more data allows companies to truly measure the impacts that they have; whether they are actually doing enough to push the needle back.

The abundance of data available today will not stand the test of time without proper treatment – some that can be facilitated using the correct digital tools to connect companies to a number of suppliers. This can ensure that production flows as it should, and that transportation

can deliver the promises that data suggests.

The key here, as expressed by many supply chain professionals, is to first put data into perspective, then undergo analysis to fully appreciate the insights gained, therefore determining two things: whether the data is applicable to the organisation’s goals and how it can be used to meet them.

These procedures come in as standard for any digital supply chain, but what exactly are the impacts to be had in line with specific supply chain management targets?

Dual sourcing strategies for resilience Strategies for mitigating risk take various forms, but to focus specifically on dual sustainabilitymag.com

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© 2022 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved. ED None.

What if resiliency isn’t about withstanding today but envisioning tomorrow?

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“ INVEST IN YOUR PROCESSES TO ENSURE YOU CAN DO MORE WITH THE SAME, OR FEWER, RESOURCES” BRIAN ALSTER

GM NORTH AMERICA, FINANCE & RISK, DUN & BRADSTREET

sourcing for a moment, we understand the importance of identifying alternative suppliers or solutions in building resilience.

Dual sourcing, if not a strategy that involves multiple suppliers, as a suitable means of adjusting to global disruptions or shortages in a particular strand of the supply chain. There’s a significant demand for this across a number of industries, from semiconductor procurement in the EV sector to healthcare supplies where multiple vendors are offering similar products from different locations globally. Of course, one way to ensure geographical resilience, particularly in an organisation with sites across the globe, is the selection of a similarly configured supplier business.

However, to truly build resilience to international events as well as isolated incidents, dealing with two or more vendors

BRIAN ALSTER TITLE: G M NORTH AMERICA, FINANCE & RISK COMPANY: DUN & BRADSTREET INDUSTRY: ANALYTICS LOCATION: UNITED STATES At Dun & Bradstreet, Alster is responsible for the strategy, product development, and sales efforts for the company’s third-party risk and compliance product portfolio.

brings alternatives to this. Companies must pay attention to other factors as well, such as the cost of shifting to another vendor in the event of disruption and the reliability of their distribution. Optimisation comes with a solution that is capable of leveraging real-time data in order to visualise vendor inventories and assess the cost of shifting, albeit temporarily or on a permanent basis. sustainabilitymag.com

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“ TO DO DUE DILIGENCE PROPERLY, ONE NEEDS A TECHNOLOGY AND ANALYTICS PLATFORM THAT ENABLES REAL-TIME MONITORING, BENCHMARKING AND THE MITIGATION OF ESG RISKS” BRIAN ALSTER

ADVISORY MD, LRQA

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Manage the risk of manufacturing and delivery localisation When outsourcing manufacturing, the ability to work with multiple providers globally can present a number of benefits.

Getting closer to the end customer is vital in ensuring that products are supplied locally with minimal carbon footprints, but can also leverage key resources available to different businesses. From a risk mitigation perspective, this also provides a fall back if a supplier experiences issues internally, but both the financial cost and carbon cost can also be impacted in this process.

This is where supply chain solutions, again looking at real-time data visibility, are crucial for ensuring that customers’ needs are met in such circumstances while minimising the spike of climate impact that will inevitably come from switching to a provider in Europe, for example, if it becomes the nearest vendor following disruption at a site in the Middle East.

“There is still no better data than that sourced directly from your own operations or suppliers on-the-ground and independently verified, which is especially the case in higher risk markets,” says Dr Kevin Franklin, Advisory MD for LRQA. “Transparent sustainabilitymag.com

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DR KEVIN FRANKLIN TITLE: A DVISORY MD COMPANY: LRQA INDUSTRY: RISK ASSURANCE LOCATION: HONG KONG Franklin has a proven track record as a thought leader in the field of sustainability, corporate responsibility and responsible-and-sustainable sourcing. He has pioneered the development and implementation of risk mitigation and resilience strategies for numerous multinational corporate clients.

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and trustworthy due diligence is nearly impossible without quality data and analytics.”

The same approach can be applied to freight and logistics when leveraging multiple businesses. “Invest in your processes to ensure you can do more with the same, or fewer, resources.

This usually means automating your supply chain data, so you’re finding new suppliers or managing existing suppliers,” says Brian Alster, GM North America, Finance & Risk at Dun & Bradstreet.

Is joint risk management sustainable?

Suppliers are also incentivised by risk, so it’s important to ensure that both strategies align. With a solution that allows sharing of data and insights from business to business, working collaboratively with supply, manufacturing, or distribution partners is much easier. Collective analysis of partnerships can determine the implications of scaling up or scaling down workloads to meet demand levels, but also buffering a reduction in capacity with another supplier.

“To do due diligence properly, one needs a technology and analytics platform that enables real-time monitoring, benchmarking and the mitigation of ESG risks,” says Franklin Investment in digitalisations provides all parties with more clarity of the supply chain risks, which can also be a factor that impacts how a product is designed or tested. Joint risk management from a sustainability standpoint relies on all parties’ abilities to disclose their sourcing data to determine the overall impact of a product, but also the end-of-life risks that can also have a negative effect on targets. sustainabilitymag.com

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THE TWIN INFR IMPACTS OF G

AND HOW TO DE

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RASTRUCTURE GENERATIVE AI

EAL WITH THEM

OUNTAIN DATA CENTERS

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Sustainability leader Iron Mountain Data Centers is investing heavily in next generation carbon reduction measures which will be vital to sustain the exponential growth of generative AI

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will be looked back on as the year generative AI burst into the public consciousness and businesses frantically adapted their models to accommodate it. The ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) to bridge the linguistic gap between humans and machines has caught the popular imagination and raised awareness of the potential to automate and improve many aspects of our lives.

In this initial flurry of speculation it can be difficult to find reliable forecasting models on which to base sound business decisions. However, in data centre infrastructure the impacts are more predictable than most, and Iron Mountain Data Centers (IMDC) believes they will drive an industry-wide design revolution fuelled by sustainability.

Smart data centre users undertaking AI investment should be aware of this and start planning for it now.

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Power surge It is clear to Iron Mountain Data Centers that by far the greatest challenge in supporting generative AI is the huge surge in power loads. Generative AI models use graphics processing unit (GPU) chips which require 10 to 15 times the energy of a traditional CPU. Many models have billions of parameters and require fast and efficient data pipelines in their training phase, which can take months to complete. ChatGPT 3.5, for instance, has 175 billion parameters and was trained on more than 500 billion words of text. To train a ChatGPT 3.5 model requires 300 to 500MW of power. Currently, a typical data centre requires 30 to 50MW 156

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of power. One of IMDC’s larger campuses, in Northern Virginia, has capacity for 10 data centres on it. The whole of the power load for this campus would be required to train ChatGPT 3.5. While LLMs are definitely at the most power-hungry end of the generative AI boom, every generative model IMDC has worked with has processor and power needs which grow exponentially, either doubling or tripling each year.

Forecasting the power requirements of generative AI over time is hard to do with any accuracy, but most analysts agree that it will ramp up current requirements hugely. If one estimates current data centre compound growth at a relatively modest

IRON MOUNTAIN DATA CENTERS

AI’S APPETITE IN ACTION IMDC provides the infrastructure for many High-Power Compute (HPC) configurations running generative AI, and has developed specialist facilities that meet their needs. High-density power, modular architecture, high-bandwidth training – input – and inference – output – connectivity and advanced cooling are all critical factors for customers.

Healthcare One of IMDC’s healthcare customers has developed a supercomputer for AI-driven imaging apps. While the total consumption is not massive and training cycles are much shorter than for LLMs, the data growth curve of this supercomputer since it was first built in 2018 has been steep. It began with just 10,00050,000 images and achieved 85% accuracy.

Now it uses up to half a billion images with accuracy of 95% and runs 50,000 deep learning training experiments per month.

Despite the compactness and efficiency of the GPUs, a few racks in the data centre have become a full module of 60 racks with

26 petabytes of processing power storing close to two billion datasets. In less than two years a petaflop of processing power will be needed.

Research The Computational Research Accelerator department at Arizona State University was running out of network ports, space and power for ‘Agave’, its supercomputer, so they built a new supercomputer called ‘Sol’ in 2022 in one of IMDC’s Phoenix data centres. Sol is a Dellbuilt system spanning 178 nodes. It uses AMD Epyc 7713 CPUs, consisting of around 18,000 cores, with the bulk of the nodes carrying 512GB of memory and five large-memory nodes equipped with 2TB. It has 56 GPU nodes with quadruple Nvidia A100, 80GB, GPUs each and four nodes with triple Nvidia A30, 24GB, GPUs. The system is networked with Nvidia’s 200GB/s HDR InfiniBand and supported by four Petabytes of Dell BeeGFS scratch storage. The R&D potential of Sol is extremely exciting, and a steep physical growth curve is anticipated.

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15%, global capacity will double in five years and quadruple in 10. With generative AI in the mix, CAGR could rise as high as 25%, tripling capacity in five years and increasing it up to tenfold in a decade. That is more than double the current growth rate. Enterprises, AI startups and Cloud Service Providers are already racing to secure data centre capacity for their workloads, with the hyperscale clouds leading the pack. This is happening fast. Analyst TD Cowen reported “a tsunami of AI demand” with 2.1GW of data centre leases signed in the US, a fifth of current total supply, in Q2 of 2023.

A mountain of e-waste The second AI-generated challenge is at the

back end; a stream of used equipment. AI is driving faster server innovation, particularly in chip design, and the latest AI chips such as the Nvidia H100 have had so many billions advanced against their manufacture and are in such short supply that they are even being used as debt collateral and made available for rent. While this refresh rate will be key to improving efficiency it will also – in tandem with the rise in capacity – increase the scale of e-waste.

E-waste is one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the world. By 2030, annual e-waste production is on track to reach a staggering 75 million metric tonnes. Global e-waste is thought to hold roughly US$60 billion-worth of raw materials such as gold,

What if Data Security, Serviceability, Safety and Satisfaction Could all be Achieved by Design?

Explore how Mission Critical facility types are becoming defining elements of architectural design.

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“ To address the twin challenges of capacity growth and e-waste the industry will have to be at the top of its game”

palladium, silver and copper. However, just 17% of global e-waste is documented to be collected and properly recycled each year.

Looming climate targets Combine these factors with the broader issues society now faces. These challenges will need to be addressed as the climate crisis deepens and zero emission targets loom. There will be unprecedented pressure on power grids to provide new electrical power for industries that are weaning themselves off fossil fuels. Iron Mountain Data Centers is a firm believer that generative AI in particular will be under intense environmental, and therefore sustainabilitymag.com

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“ AI may be a key to solving the problem, not just for our own industry but for other sectors” popular, scrutiny. To address the twin challenges of capacity growth and e-waste the industry will have to be at the top of its game.

Addressing the challenge: Carbon elimination and circularity How should the industry react? As ever, by solving the problems one by one.

Low-to-no-carbon power sources will be the key to addressing power challenges.

The power demands of generative AI will accelerate this focus and drive new innovations in microgrids and backup power sources such as battery, hydrogen and nuclear. Renewables will also be key.

Most hyperscalers and a growing number of colocation providers have been growing the green grid and eliminating carbon to the point that today, hyperscalers are the biggest buyers of renewables in the world. On the colocation side, the Iron Mountain Group is now one of the top 20 renewable buyers in the world.

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Data centre owners will now need to follow the leaders and we are already making headway. Following Google’s lead, two years ago IMDC committed to provide not just 100% renewables but 24/7 carbonfree energy – you can see how IMDC and its partners have gone about this in a recent documentary ‘Transforming our Future’. This is a major step up from ‘attributing’ power used to renewables credits, and we believe that this approach will in time replace the current year-by-year Virtual Power Purchase Agreement model.

When it comes to circularity, new chips and superfast GPUs will drive the

AI revolution, but what will happen to the old ones? For both efficient performance and impact reduction, Iron Mountain Data Centers says AI providers will need to check that IT asset lifecycle optimisation and recycling, remarketing and secure disposal are available. The industry has been fairly slow to integrate this, but this will accelerate, and IMDC is changing the shape of its business to be in a position to address this issue.

The IMDC Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) division, which now covers 32 countries, sanitises more than three million drives a year and has generated in excess

of US$1bn for clients via remarketing and recycling. Most recently, Iron Mountain invested a further US$200 million in acquiring Regency Technologies, which will add even more robust remarketing and recycling capabilities to support circularity for the world’s largest digital businesses.

Iron Mountain sees huge potential for this segment to service AI customers over the coming years.

The AI opportunity for the industry In the same way that generative AI will revolutionise the industries that run its applications, it is set to revolutionise sustainabilitymag.com

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STATS: • To train a ChatGPT 3.5 model requires 300-500MW of power • With generative AI in the mix, data centre CAGR could rise as high as 25%, tripling capacity in five years and increasing it up to tenfold in a decade • By 2030, annual e-waste production is on track to reach a staggering 75 million metric tonnes • The IMDC Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) division, which now covers 32 countries, sanitises more than three million drives a year and has generated in excess of US$1bn for clients via remarketing and recycling • Click here to read the IMDC Infrastructure Service Sheet on the Top 10 considerations when planning AI infrastructure

the infrastructure industry that supports it. It promises to deliver immense economic value over the coming decade, but will also consume immense amounts of power. Many generative AI applications can be hosted in a specialised shared facility. Different models have different infrastructure requirements, but all share the need for high-density power, advanced cooling and modular design.

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in the list of the world’s largest companies, innovation has accelerated and serious fact-based commitments have been made by industry leaders to tackle the climate crisis. In fact AI may be a key to solving the problem, not just for our own industry but for other sectors.

Data centre customers interested in developing generative AI applications should plan and invest early to keep ahead of the steep upward curve in power and space uptake. They should also pay close attention to new infrastructure design impacts,

“ Iron Mountain is now one of the top 20 renewable buyers in the world”

efficiency, energy sourcing and e-waste.

This means scrutinising the energy track record and targets of their cloud or data centre provider and sharing data on climate target progress and day-to-day access to – preferably 24/7 carbon-free – renewables.

You can find more detail on the market forecasts and detailed infrastructure impacts of generative AI in IMDC’s Generative AI Solution Guide.

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MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

Mastercard Foundation invests in the future of African youth WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON

PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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MASTERCARD FOUNDATION

Enabling young leaders to own their futures, Mastercard Foundation invests in African and Canadian youth providing vital opportunities to learn and prosper

E

veryone deserves the opportunity to learn and prosper.

Working with visionary organisations, the Mastercard Foundation is one of the world’s largest enablers of providing access to dignified and fulfilling work for young people in Africa and Indigenous communities in Canada.

“We want a world where young people are included and are thriving and their leadership and contributions matter,” says Mastercard Foundation. “A future where young people are driving transformative change and achieving their full potential.”

Bringing together the private sector, donors, young people and civil society, Mastercard Foundation is a developer of effective ecosystems and infrastructure, as well as a supporter of policies and an environment where young people can find work and entrepreneurs can succeed and grow.

Education, women and employment Working in 33 countries across Africa, the Mastercard Foundation has a three-step longterm plan for its operating areas: • Improve the quality of education and vocational training to equip young people with the skills employers need • Leverage technology to connect employers and job seekers, as well as drive growth • Enable entrepreneurs and small businesses to expand through access to financial services

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“We expect to work in a diverse group of countries with high levels of young people living in poverty who are vulnerably employed. These countries will have an enabling environment for growth, job creation, education and skills development, and an ability to influence within regions.

We will also prioritise working with African organisations,” explains the Mastercard Foundation.

To date, the foundation has improved the lives of more than 50 million people, unifying its work around the single most complex challenge young people face in Africa – unemployment.

Enabling young women to ‘own their futures’ Providing secondary education, financial literacy and entrepreneurship opportunities, the foundation helps more than one million young women from disadvantaged backgrounds and rural communities gain access to vital skills.

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“This magnificent investment [US$10mn] by the Mastercard Foundation will enable Camfed to expand opportunities for girls and young women,” says Ann Cotton, Camfed’s Executive Director. “Together, we will help a new generation of young women to access vital skills in financial literacy and

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Philanthropy in action: The Mastercard Foundation

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entrepreneurship which will empower them to own their own futures.”

First launched in 2011, Camfed’s programme enables a continuum of support during school and post-school years, enabling young women to complete secondary education, gain financial knowledge and test new approaches to launch innovative and diverse businesses in their rural communities.

“Camfed’s holistic approach enables young women to become leaders of change and role models who re-invest back into their communities,” notes Reeta Roy, President and CEO of The MasterCard Foundation.

Giving women a platform in agriculture Backing an initiative established by Alluvial Agriculture, the foundation enables training and financial support for women in Nigeria to become tractor owner-operators.

“For too long, women have been excluded from agricultural finance and mechanisation, despite the fact that they are the backbone of our industry,” says Dimieari Von Kemedi, Co-founder and Managing Director of Alluvial Agriculture. “Our programme is an important step in addressing this imbalance.”

The initiative began in 2021, with training provided by a joint venture between Tata International and Alluvial Agriculture.

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Deere tractors, a percentage of fees earned are used to repay the tractor loan. Based on expected earnings, new female-led businesses could own between 20 and 50 tractors by 2028.

“The Mastercard Foundation is very excited about this partnership as it is an opportunity to drive inclusive growth for women in farming,” says Chidinma Lawanson, Nigeria's Country Head at Mastercard Foundation.

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Entrepreneurial skills and fostering a network ecosystem of support In a bid to support more than 300,000 young adults, the foundation has partnered with Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) to provide access to entrepreneurial skills and foster a network ecosystem of support.

“Young people have the potential to be at the forefront of innovation and entrepreneurship in high-growth sectors such as technology, climate-smart agriculture

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and renewable energy. Women and girls, in particular, can play a crucial role as powerful agents of change in their communities, contributing to economic growth and social progress,” says the Mastercard Foundation.

Dubbed The ‘Going Beyond – Partnering for a Youth-Led Future’ project, the two organisations will scale DOT’s evidencebased, peer-to-peer model in four African countries (Côte d’Ivoire, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania). Scaling DOT’s model will ensure

comprehensive digital and business skills training, leadership development, coaching, peer-to-peer learning, and networking.

Reeta Roy, President and CEO of Mastercard Foundation says: “Going Beyond is designed to envision young people as leaders in their communities, and we believe that a combination of YLO capacity building, locally appropriate 21st-century skills, entrepreneurship and MSME support will be an effective means of bringing this vision to

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life while addressing youth employment in the four countries this project will be executed in.

“In addition, Going Beyond’s work, which is also in line with the Young Africa Works strategy, will help young women and men find dignified and meaningful work.”

Social venture challenge and climate action Providing a pathway to action for socially responsible young leaders, the Mastercard Foundation in partnership with The Resolution Project offers entrepreneurial 174

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and socially responsible Scholars with a pathway to bolster their social enterprises and deepen community impact.

“Africa’s young leaders are brimming with ideas, energy and a desire to have a positive impact on their communities.

But few have the tools, resources and access to the mentorship they need to successfully launch social venture projects in their communities,” notes the foundation.

Competing in a multi-step competition designed to recognise and celebrate young leaders committed to social

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change in Africa and beyond, Social Venture Challenge (SVC) – since 2016 – has awarded more than US$581,200 to 267 Mastercard Foundation Scholars. With the support of The Resolution Project, Fellows have gone on to positively impact more than 904,792 people across Africa to date.

The Social Venture Challenge 2023 Now in its eighth year, SVC has selected 37 young African social entrepreneurs as winners of the challenge that provides seed funding, mentorship and access to a network of global changemakers.

Duaa Mohamed, Lead of Transformative Leadership Programmes at the Mastercard Foundation, says: “Congratulations to the 2023 Resolution Project Social Venture Challenge winners! Over the past eight years, in partnership with the Resolution Project, the Social Venture Challenge has showcased the immense potential of Mastercard Foundation Scholars dedicated to community impact.

“It’s not just about recognising their achievements, but also acknowledging the profound influence these projects will have on their communities.”

Green technology and youth employment Examining the gaps and opportunities of green technology programmes to engage and benefit Africa’s youth, the Mastercard Foundation’s report – ‘Green technology and youth employment potential in Africa: A continental scoping report’ – shines a light on how African governments can seize these opportunities to spur green technology growth and youth employment. sustainabilitymag.com

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“With climate change posing a major challenge to African economies, governments have been implementing policies and programmes to address its impacts. These are particularly focused on the energy and agriculture sectors, which will need to undergo significant changes to adapt to climate change. Green technologies offer opportunities for job creation and increased entrepreneurial activity in these sectors,” highlights the foundation.

An opportunity waiting to be harnessed, the continent could benefit from green tech initiatives given the high levels of youth unemployment and their potential for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Dr Eunice Muthengi, Director of Programme and Strategic Research at the Mastercard Foundation, says: “While climate change presents significant risks to Africa’s development agenda, the required green transition also presents a unique opportunity. This report highlights that greater policy dialogue to support Africa’s green tech industry can contribute toward improving young people’s access to jobs that are not only dignified and fulfilling, but that are also environmentally sustainable.”

In particular, information and communication technologies (ICTs), hold significant promise for developing climatesmart solutions for greener economies.

The report was presented and discussed by a panel of experts, including Dr Fadekunayo Adeniyi from the African Development Bank, Mwayi Kampesi from Planet Green Africa, and Chiemela Anosike from Solaris GreenTech Hub on November 8, 2023.

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DRIVING SUSTAIN

WITH DIGITALIS AD FEATURE WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW PRODUCED BY: OLIVER REEK

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Siemens Energy VP Simona Rossetti on how the company is spearheading the decarbonisation of the energy industry through digitalisation

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or more than 150 years, engineers at Siemens Energy – one of the world’s leading energy technology companies – have been spearheading the electrification of the world.

The company works with its customers and partners on energy systems for the future, supporting the transition to a more sustainable world. With its portfolio of products, solutions and services, Siemens Energy covers almost the entire energy value chain – from power generation and transmission to storage.

“Our mission is to support companies and countries with what they need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make energy reliable, affordable, and more sustainable,” describes Simona Rossetti, Senior Vice President within Siemens Energy’s Gas Services Business, who first joined the company’s energy business in 2003.

In 2020 Siemens Energy was founded as an independent company, opening a new chapter in Siemens’ extensive history of energy technology. Its aim today is to energise society.

“An estimated one-sixth of the electricity generated worldwide is based on technologies from Siemens Energy,” Rossetti says. “Today we are a team of 94,000 sharing the same passion, vision, and values. Our diversity makes us strong and helps us to find answers together with our partners.”

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Digitalisation and decarbonisation Describing it as our greatest challenge, energy transition poses a number of questions: first and foremost how to reduce greenhouse emissions while also increasing energy supply. “It is an uphill battle, and there is no silver bullet,” Rossetti says.

“But finding solutions has always been in our DNA.” Digitalisation can contribute to decarbonisation in several ways, firstly by making energy production more efficient, meaning the same amount of electricity can be produced with less fuel and fewer emissions.

“Secondly, digitalisation helps to integrate renewable energy sources into the grid by managing power flows, balancing supply and demand, and optimising energy storage,” Rossetti says. “For example, digital control systems such as Omnivise T3000 can help manage the intermittency of solar and wind power by predicting energy output and adjusting supply accordingly.”

Integrated data management is another solution that supports decarbonisation.

“Integrating operations and engineering data can enable engineers to do their jobs more efficiently,” Rossetti says. “Overall, digitalisation can enable the optimisation of energy and resource use, reduce fuel consumption, and promote sustainable practices, contributing to decarbonisation efforts.

“ SIEMENS ENERGY BELIEVES INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY CREATES MORE OPPORTUNITY FOR SUCCESS...

EVERYONE HAS AN EQUAL PART TO PLAY IN ENERGISING SOCIETY” SIMONA ROSSETTI TITLE: SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT COMPANY: S IEMENS ENERGY INDUSTRY: ENERGY LOCATION: GERMANY Simona Rossetti is a Senior Vice President within Siemens Energy’s Gas Services Business. She is leading the Europe and Africa region for all service activities in Controls and Digitalisation.

Her goal is to support all European and African customers with tailored sustainable solutions for servicing and decarbonising their portfolio to secure energy supply and achieve CO2 reduction goals. She aims to directly contribute to business growth and strategic direction of the organization, drive change management, and effectively role model, inspire and mentor the next generation of professionals in the energy industry.

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WATCH NOW

Digitalisation boosting efficiency in power generation Digitalisation is a potent tool to enhance efficiency in power generation. Siemens Energy offers a number of solutions from their Omnivise portfolio, engineered to refine maintenance operations within power plants and foster predictive maintenance strategies.

The company’s Omnivise Asset Management (OAM) offering is a modern software suite combining deep domain know-how, the latest technologies and methods, and modern software design to support plant personnel.

An example of these capabilities can be seen in the operations of one of Latin America’s largest electricity suppliers, which manages a vast fleet of diverse power generation assets – ranging from fossil to renewable sources. The company, in a bid

to trim Operational Expenditures (OPEX) across its maintenance and operations, wanted to introduce a remote expert centre at its headquarters.

“The OAM software forms the central technical backbone to deliver critical services to their entire fleet of assets,” Rossetti says. “Our solution will enable the customer to reduce operational costs while increasing reliability and availability of key assets at 23 power plants.”

With OAM, Siemens Energy also supports broader use cases from remote operator rounds and inspections all the way to autonomous plants. As Rossetti describes, to reach this milestone there are a number of challenges for plant operators to overcome.

“The growing percentage of renewable energy sources in the grid is steadily increasing the pressure on gas power plants to operate more flexibly and efficiently. sustainabilitymag.com

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A massive shortage of skilled control room and maintenance personnel is also looming on the horizon.”

Ultimately, the vision of power plants that operate autonomously is about to become a reality, with increasing advanced technologies increasing the efficiency of the plant itself but also of the plant operators.

“Developers are now taking the next step towards autonomy by fine-tuning digital twins, data analyses, and AI to provide smart forecasts and instructions.

“Autonomy doesn’t start with the autopilot. Long before that, power plants are supported by smart analyses, smart forecasts, smart recommendations, and smart instructions,” Rossetti comments.

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and other sensors mounted on the plant or installed on robots, and that request support when needed. Off-site maintenance and control room personnel can support several power plants simultaneously.”

Digital control systems helping manage new challenges in the energy industry The energy landscape is changing and the number of renewable energy sources is growing steadily. With that comes pressure on fossil-fueled power plants to operate more flexibly and efficiently. Digital control systems such as Omnivise T3000 from Siemens Energy can help to manage these new challenges.

This system with its SCADA functionality is capable of managing a variety of different decentralised energy resources including wind offshore, automated, autonomously

and in a coordinated way, ensuring reliable 24/7 operation.

“At the same time, it is flexible and scalable to support a larger number of assets when needed,” says Rossetti. “Omnivise T3000 is the perfect solution not only for fossil power generation and renewables, but also for large and mid-size microgrids, such as IPPs, islands, industries, data centres and mines.”

Together with German utility MVV, Siemens Energy has built and recently put into operation a large-scale heat pump plant at the GKM power plant in the city of Mannheim. The plant uses river water as a heat source, helping to replace a coal-fired power plant.

This new heat pump will be a major contributor to MVV and the City of Mannheim’s goals to become CO2 neutral

“ DIGITALISATION WITH OMNIVISE CAN ENABLE THE OPTIMISATION OF ENERGY AND RESOURCE USE, REDUCE FUEL CONSUMPTION, AND PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES, CONTRIBUTING TO DECARBONISATION EFFORTS” SIMONA ROSSETTI

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“ AN ESTIMATED ONE-SIXTH OF THE ELECTRICITY GENERATED WORLDWIDE IS BASED ON TECHNOLOGIES FROM SIEMENS ENERGY” SIMONA ROSSETTI

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in heating production by 2030. The facility is expected to supply district heating for 3,500 households and save some 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

“Our proven Omnivise T3000 control system integrates the control of the new heat pump and an existing thermal storage into the existing GKM power plant,” Rossetti explains. “The control system uses its multi-unit functionality to manage multiple generation units from a central control room.”

Using data insights to unlock new opportunities to decarbonise A powerful tool to improve operational efficiency and reduce emissions is harnessing the power of data. Integrating operations and engineering data enables engineers to do their jobs more efficiently, while data scientists and modelers use this integrated data to predict the future.

One good example of this, Rossetti describes, is Siemens Energy’s Omnivise Energy Management solution. “Power 186

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producers also have the challenge to sell their energy most profitable. Every day, they have an increasingly complicated decision to make: How can I plan the dispatch of my assets to satisfy market demand, but in the most beneficial way?”

For dispatchers with combined-cycle power plants this question is challenging.

The introduction of renewables like solar and wind can create wider fluctuations in demand for dispatchable energy from traditional power producers.

“When solar and wind are available, they are prioritised on the grid,” Rossetti explains. “This situation leads to shorter market intervals for power generated by fossil-fueled plants. These dispatchers now must access and understand weather data to know when neither wind nor solar will be available, and they will need to fill the generation gap in a cost-efficient way.”

Aimed at solving this problem, Siemens Energy’s Omnivise Energy Management solution combines the power of AI-driven forecasting and predictive asset models.

“With Omnivise Energy Management our customers are able to do rapid multidimensional or multi-branch scenario simulations and create day-ahead and short-term future generations plans that are economically optimised to the plant’s circumstances,” Rossetti says.

Ensuring the safety and security of control systems and customer data As part of critical infrastructure, plants in the energy market must fulfil more stringent requirements than ever before. With the risk of cyber-attacks, this means looking beyond operational concerns and protecting plants against hacker attacks – and documenting compliance according to a wide range of legal requirements. sustainabilitymag.com

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As Rossetti describes, thanks to built-in security and Siemens Energy’s comprehensive cybersecurity portfolio, Omnivise T3000 is ideally suited to help operators protect their infrastructure.

“We provide long-term support so you can rely on a system that is always up to date,” she comments. “We support current hardware on a long-term basis and provide tried-and-tested security patches for software at any time during operation.

For our customers, this means long-term security with no downtime.”

One of Rossetti’s most significant career achievements, she describes, has been the spearheading of Siemens Energy’s Cyber Security Operation Center (cSOC) in Germany to help organisations defend against and resolve cyberattacks 24/7.

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“ OUR MISSION IS TO SUPPORT COMPANIES AND COUNTRIES WITH WHAT THEY NEED TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND MAKE ENERGY RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, AND MORE SUSTAINABLE” SIMONA ROSSETTI

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SIEMENS ENERGY

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“The energy sector has become a primary target for cyber-attacks,” she says.

“Collaborating with my dedicated team, I saw the need to develop cybersecurity services that could be seamlessly integrated into our customers’ contracts and help them when confronting the growing cyber threats they are exposed to. To meet this need, I took the initiative to establish a Cyber Security Operation Center (cSOC) for our European customers from the ground up.

“This undertaking allowed us to promptly respond to an emerging trend and fulfill a critical customer requirement with our cyber protection, detection, and monitoring solutions. I am proud of our ability to identify a new industry trend and swiftly create effective solutions to address it.”

The energy transition relies on seamlessly connecting physical assets with digital technologies to foster innovation, reduce emissions, and improve efficiency, but this future depends on strong cybersecurity across the whole supply chain. Siemens Energy’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solution provides scalable protection against disruptive cyberattacks in the energy sector using innovative AI. “It defends critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, helping protect communities around the world from supply chain disruptions,” comments Rossetti.

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“OUR PROVEN CONTROL SYSTEM SUPPORTS YOU WITH INNOVATIONS YOU NEED TO BUILD A BRIDGE TO THE ENERGY SYSTEM OF TOMORROW. FOR CONVENTIONAL POWER PLANTS AS WELL AS DECENTRALISED POWER GENERATION WITH RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES, FOR ANY PLANTS AND ANY SIZE – PERFECTLY TAILORED TO OUR DIGITAL SOLUTION PORTFOLIO. CONTROL THE ENERGY SYSTEM OF TOMORROW WITH OMNIVISE T3000” SIMONA ROSSETTI

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, SIEMENS ENERGY

the power to detect and uncover attacks before they execute. “These secure cloud capabilities that can integrate digital applications and leverage sensitive data – such as real-time monitoring and detection – add an important and cost-effective tool to the defensive arsenal for CISOs and industrial security analysts.”

A wide range of collaborative partnerships Siemens Energy is collaborating with numerous companies around the world, from the marine sector to hydrogen production, from eFuels to heavy industries.

“We are working on open innovation with customers, industrial partners, universities, and research centres like the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) in Germany, the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US and the University of Cambridge in the UK.” As Siemens Energy invests in growth and optionality, it has engaged in partnerships with a number of ventures: including joining 190

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the AWS Partner Network as a Technology Partner to provide customers with industrial cybersecurity, analytics and data storage solutions and partnering with Air Liquide on building a sustainable hydrogen economy in Europe.

“At Siemens Energy, our innovation strategy is not just about technology and products. It is about empowering people and partners, both within the company and outside of it, to accelerate progress on the journey to net-zero,” Rossetti says.

“We strive to create a culture and framework where individuals and teams can take ownership of innovation and bring new concepts to market with the goal of better serving our customers and becoming the world’s premiere energy.

“Partnerships represent a key step in helping the power industry drive toward a more sustainable, profitable future and in offering our customers a more efficient solution for their business.”

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The importance of inclusion and diversity in energising society Every day, people are treated less favorably or face discrimination because of their ethnicity, gender, religion or ideology, disability, age, or sexual identity. As Rossetti explains, this has to change.

“Siemens Energy believes inclusion and diversity creates more opportunity for success. It doesn’t matter the gender, age, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or disability − everyone has an equal part to play in energising society. Here, more than 94,000 employees worldwide join forces with welcoming colleagues who encourage equality and belonging, to passionately and energetically pursue a shared goal: to shape the energy systems of the future.”

With the energy industry playing a crucial role in addressing climate change and reducing carbon emissions, there has never been a more important time to make positive change.

“The world needs people who do not look the other way when they see or hear racism and discrimination. We can all doa great deal in our everyday lives and at work to make our society more supportive, open, and tolerant.

“At Siemens Energy, we believe that creating a society worth living in involves demonstrating solidarity and creating an environment in the here and now that not only leaves room for diverse identities and lifestyles but also sees them as an enrichment to our lives,” Rossetti concludes. “If we all work together toward this goal, nothing less than great things can come of it – for us, for the future, for all of us.”

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